World Perspectives
farm-inputs

USA Land Use Changes

The acres used for crops in the U.S. peaked in 1981 when farm income was low and farmers tried to make up for it by expanding production. The acres used for crops in 2022 was 14.7 percent fewer and the share of cropland successfully harvested had risen slightly to 85 percent.  While the number of acres planted and then considered failed in production peaked during the Dust Bowl days of the 1930’s, failed acres in 2002 were the highest since 2002. Notably, the number of acres double cropped has not increased with the higher crop values in recent years. The marginal returns may not offset the cost of inputs and soil sustainability.  For similar reasons like the loss of nitrogen and soil moisture, the amount of summer...

Related Articles
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Friday’s Ends a Tough Week Except for Soyoil and Dollar

There was a glimmer of hope for bulls on Friday, but it was just a glimmer. Soybeans, meal and HRW closed higher, but the rest of the players fell off the merry-go-round. There was generally lower volume but the trend is clear – there is an over abundance of grain on world markets and U.S...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.255/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.3975/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.25/bushel, up $0.025 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $319.2/short ton, up $1.6 from...

Parsing Newly Resumed Macro Data

With the longest government shutdown in history now over, the flow of economic data has resumed.  Two key items of market interest are the September employment report and the August’s trade numbers. But they tell an uncertain story. especially when coupled with the Consumer Price Rep...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Friday’s Ends a Tough Week Except for Soyoil and Dollar

There was a glimmer of hope for bulls on Friday, but it was just a glimmer. Soybeans, meal and HRW closed higher, but the rest of the players fell off the merry-go-round. There was generally lower volume but the trend is clear – there is an over abundance of grain on world markets and U.S...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.255/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.3975/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.25/bushel, up $0.025 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $319.2/short ton, up $1.6 from...

Parsing Newly Resumed Macro Data

With the longest government shutdown in history now over, the flow of economic data has resumed.  Two key items of market interest are the September employment report and the August’s trade numbers. But they tell an uncertain story. especially when coupled with the Consumer Price Rep...

livestock

Despite Futures Pullback, Cow-Calf Profits Hit Records

With November and the fall calf run almost over, the U.S. beef industry now has its first truly solid estimates of the realized profitability of many cow-calf operations. Most operations wean and market calves in the fall, starting in September or early October and running through December, whi...

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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.

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