In December 2021, USDA Secretary Vilsack urged the industry to “get in a room” to hash out a consensus on addressing dairy policy. This weekend, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) hosted the Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) forum in Kansas City. The meeting was convened to discuss reforms to FMMOs to fix shortcomings and unintended consequences of the regulated pricing system – many of which were exposed by the impact of COVID. Prior to the 2018 farm bill, under the FMMO, Class I prices were calculated by using the higher of Class III and IV advanced skim milk prices (SMP). In 2018, that was changed to an average of the two, plus a $0.74 per hundredweight premium. What happened during COVID was that...
What You Need to Know Today: The hot, dry weather forecast continues to drive strength in grain futures with corn and soybeans hitting another day of strong gains. Monday’s Crop Progress and Conditions data were in line with market expectations and showed relatively few concerns for the...
Yesterday we wrote about the Q1 GDP numbers and the June employment reports in an article entitled Real GDP for Q1 Relying on AI Buildout, Held Back by Consumer Spending. That article mentioned that consumer spending had become a drag on GDP. Nonetheless, real GDP in Q1 was revised upward to 2...
Key Takeaways: The Middle East and North Africa's arid climate and limited water resources have created a structural dependence on imported wheat. Government wheat tenders in major importing countries serve as important benchmarks for global trade, providing insight into exporter competitivene...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.