The Farm Foundation held a conference on the farm economy this week and following are key points made by the presenters. American Farm Bureau Federation Chief Economist Dr. John Newton: • Farm Income: Excluding government payments (which will represent a third of farm income), net farm income in 2019 will be $69 billion, and in 2019 inflation-adjusted dollars, it will be in the bottom 50 percent of all time. With $33 billion in government payment and insurance receipts, farm income will be $88 billion in 2019, among the top 30 percent of all years on an inflation adjusted basis. • Bear Markets: 1919 to 1947 (22 years); 1948 to 1972 (23 years); 1973 to late 1980’s (13 years); and 2013 to ? (six years and counting). •...
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...
Monday, 25 May is a U.S. holiday, and both the markets and our office will be closed. Please note that the next issue of Ag Perspectives will be published on Tuesday, 26 May. The WPI staff wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend...
USDA’s monthly cattle on feed report was released today. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity amounted to 11.6 million head, 102 percent of last year. Source: USDA, WPI Placements were up, but part of that is attributable to persistent drought c...
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.