There has been talk about the impact of this winter and even some special spring and summer forecasts that are highlighting how the current U.S. weather situation and outlook compares with the Dust Bowl summer of 1936.It’s hard to believe the Northern Hemisphere planting season lies just around the corner when much of the U.S. remains mired in the depths of one of the coldest winters on record. It is a sure bet the northern Plains will have endured one of the 10 coldest winters on record, and it could push this year into the top five if the latest forecast holds true for another super cold week. California is still suffering one of its worst droughts ever. The East Coast has endured one megastorm after another, and the total number of airli...
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.