World Perspectives

U.S.-Japan FTA Will Cost; Varied GMO Approaches

U.S.-Japan FTA Will Cost Junnosuke Kobara at Nikkei provides analysis showing that while Japanese farmers may be few in number, they have outsized influence when voting as a bloc. The analysis is important because there is an Upper House election in two weeks, and the Abe government is negotiating a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the U.S. His analysis finds that farmers are extremely sensitive to liberalized trade, but they can be bought off. Thus, Prime Minister Abe has tripled the amount of land adjustment spending to over $5 billion and created a $4.5 billion supplementary budget for farmers.   Varied GMO Approaches In Europe, protestors have been known to burn down any fields they’ve found growing GM crops. In the U.S.,...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

CFTC COT Report Analysis

Friday’s CFTC report showed funds further expanding long positions across the major ag futures contracts for the sixth straight week. Funds added 176,000 contracts (60 percent) to their all-ags net long position, with strong and mostly uniform buying across the ag sector.  The soy co...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Green Despite Many Obstacles

There was mostly green on the board for Friday and for the week as a whole. Another contract high was printed by soyoil as higher energies, higher inflation, and heightened geopolitical tensions all favored commodities.  There are some topical contrasts. For example, the cattle market is t...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.485/bushel, up $0.05 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.915/bushel, up $0.17 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.7075/bushel, up $0.0725 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $320.5/short ton, down $0.4 from...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

CFTC COT Report Analysis

Friday’s CFTC report showed funds further expanding long positions across the major ag futures contracts for the sixth straight week. Funds added 176,000 contracts (60 percent) to their all-ags net long position, with strong and mostly uniform buying across the ag sector.  The soy co...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Green Despite Many Obstacles

There was mostly green on the board for Friday and for the week as a whole. Another contract high was printed by soyoil as higher energies, higher inflation, and heightened geopolitical tensions all favored commodities.  There are some topical contrasts. For example, the cattle market is t...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.485/bushel, up $0.05 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.915/bushel, up $0.17 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.7075/bushel, up $0.0725 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $320.5/short ton, down $0.4 from...

livestock

Cold Storage Report: Up over Last Month, Down on the Year

The Cold Storage report for January showed that red meat and poultry supplies rose from the month ending December, but total supplies are down from a year ago and well below the 5-year average. Total supplies were 1.878 billion pounds, down 2.5 percent from a year ago. This indicates a tighteni...

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From WPI Consulting

Forecasting developments in production agriculture

On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.

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