At a subcommittee hearing held last week on the farm bill implementation, different agency administrators reported on the current status of program enrollments and compliance issues.The House Agriculture Committee's subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management held a hearing last week on the farm bill implementation. Subcommittee Chairman Rick Crawford (R-Arkansas) noted that farmers will have had to make a choice by 31 March whether to sign up for the farm bill's Price Loss Coverage (PLC) or Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) programs. This is an irrevocable decision made more consequential by the fact that net farm income has dropped 43 percent since its peak in the past few years. Crawford said this is a reason for the farm...
What You Need to Know Today: The corn and soybean markets closed slightly higher in low-volume trade. The wheat market was mixed, with HRW continuing its downward trek on improved moisture. As expected, the bearish cattle on feed report drove down cattle prices and pulled hogs down with it. Mi...
Key Market Insights Macro markets delivered a full whipsaw today. Early in the session, crude oil had rallied back above $100/barrel as traders priced renewed concern over the U.S.-Iran standoff and potential supply risk through the Strait of Hormuz. That strength helped pull grains off their o...
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.