Later this month, USDA will release the quarterly Hogs and Pigs report sizing up the swine herd as of 1 September. There are a lot of reasons – none of them really good – to anticipate this report. Reports from Iowa State University show wean to finish operators have been in the red on a per head basis for 10 months, originating late last year. Sow slaughter has been up since about June and in the June quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report, farrowing intentions for the June through August quarter were down 3.6 percent, and farrowing intentions at that time for the quarter starting today through December were down 4.4 percent. Both make sense in context of sow liquidation. Will those reduced farrowing plans be followed through? Will tha...
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.