World Perspectives

Staying in Lanes; Goodbye Ag; East-West Helps the Poor

Staying in Lanes Under ideal governance, elected legislatures create the principles of public policy. For example, pesticides should be used when proven scientifically safe and banned when proven harmful. Regulators then implement those principles using expertise uniquely held by impartial experts. Politicians come under career ending pressure from activists and voters in a manner not experienced by career scientists. Politics led to a ban on the sweeteners cyclamate and saccharin many decades ago based on junk science and politics, and were subsequently shown to not cause cancer. Now Congressman Bennie Thompson (R-Mississippi) says Republicans will work to allow pesticides banned by the U.S. Environmental protection Agency. Not because Co...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Grains Gain on Black Sea Tensions; Cattle Extend Rally

The CBOT initially looked set for a quiet day of post-holiday trade on Tuesday, but that was before Russian President Putin elevated political tensions in the Black Sea region. Putin threatened to increase attacks on Ukraine in response to Ukraine’s recent attacks on Russian tanker vessel...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.5/bushel, up $0.05 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.41/bushel, up $0.06 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.2475/bushel, down $0.0325 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $311.6/short ton, down $3 from yes...

End of the Year: Lots to Do and a Short Time to Get it Done

Congress returns this week from their Thanksgiving recess to wrap up end-of-year priorities. There are only 13 days of legislative sessions remaining in the House, with 12 days before the 30 January deadline when the government runs out of money once again. The Senate has 12 days of session rem...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Grains Gain on Black Sea Tensions; Cattle Extend Rally

The CBOT initially looked set for a quiet day of post-holiday trade on Tuesday, but that was before Russian President Putin elevated political tensions in the Black Sea region. Putin threatened to increase attacks on Ukraine in response to Ukraine’s recent attacks on Russian tanker vessel...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.5/bushel, up $0.05 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.41/bushel, up $0.06 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.2475/bushel, down $0.0325 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $311.6/short ton, down $3 from yes...

End of the Year: Lots to Do and a Short Time to Get it Done

Congress returns this week from their Thanksgiving recess to wrap up end-of-year priorities. There are only 13 days of legislative sessions remaining in the House, with 12 days before the 30 January deadline when the government runs out of money once again. The Senate has 12 days of session rem...

livestock

Livestock Industry Margins

Beef packer margins surged for a fourth consecutive week, jumping $108/head to $228 and marking the strongest profitability in more than two years. Margins rose on the combination of a $5.88/cwt decline in live cattle and an $13.20/cwt drop in dressed cattle prices, while the Choice cutout ease...

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From WPI Consulting

Communicating importance of value-added products

Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.

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