Dry conditions hurt HRW production in two of the last three years. It is looking more likely that this will again be the case in 2014. The only question is, to what extent?Wheat markets have staged a small recovery this week after more than $1.00 a bushel losses in futures markets over the past few months. Funds continue to hold record short positions in wheat futures. This week's rally was partly due to funds covering short positions, but that activity was not widespread or large. In fact, funds were sellers again yesterday.The market needs something to trigger short covering. Last Monday's state-by-state winter wheat crop condition ratings were the initial trigger. Key states like Texas and Oklahoma saw their crop ratings drop 25-30 perce...
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.