Tomorrow’s Trade Deal Revelations The actual text of a bilateral trade deal between the U.S. and China is supposed to be released tomorrow, although key parts will be missing. Thus far, information about the agreement has been the verbal spin of Trump Administration officials. One point made clear is that there are specific commitments for China’s commodity imports, but they will not be made transparent to the public. There is the value target of $200 billion worth of Chinese purchases of commodities over two years, including $80 billion for agriculture, but the composition of the trade is speculative. Officials understandably note that it will include value-added products such as pet food, ethanol, nuts, fruits and vegetables...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
From WPI Consulting
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.