The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its short-term energy outlook (STEO) earlier this month, with outlooks for crude oil, natural gas, and propane. The price outlook is for lower crude prices, higher for natural gas, and flat for propane in the Midwest, and slightly lower...
The U.S. dollar was already at a two-year high when President-Elect Donald Trump announced he would impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico over drugs and immigration. The Canadian dollar was at a four year low against the dollar and fell further. The peso also fell and is now at its weakest in ove...
The livestock packing sector continues to see profitability decline as beef and pork prices have been relatively stable while animal costs have risen. Both beef and pork packer margins turned negative last week, though the losses are shallow in the pork sector and deeply red for the beef indust...
The holiday trading season is officially here, which means the CBOT will likely see fading volume and volatility until the new year. Ag markets reflected much of that sentiment on Monday with wheat and corn falling amid reduced concerns about the conflict in the Black Sea while soybeans and soy...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.