Warren is Wrong U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) excoriated her own Party’s USDA secretary, Tom Vilsack, for failing to stop concentration in agriculture. She and others of her ilk apparently prefer poverty of the many. She complains there are too few agribusinesses competing, with meat packing a highlighted villain. The meat industry has been consolidated and fruitlessly investigated for decades. Just as Ford, GM and Stellantis have competition to sell cars, meatpackers face plenty of competition. They compete against imports and individual plants compete with one another. The U.S. has 835 federally inspected, livestock slaughter plants, an additional 3,773 plants processing red meat but not slaughtering. There...
What You Need to Know Today: Markets got a surprise with a corn yield of 181.2 bushels/acre in the October WASDE, above the average estimate of 177.6 bushels/acre and up from USDA’s September estimate of 178.5 bushels/acre. Although stronger demand is expected to absorb some of the addit...
Key Takeaways: On Friday afternoon, President Trump announced that Russia will “immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel” to the United States. The deal, typical of this administration, is light on details but promises an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 m...
The USDA has lowered its 2026 red meat production forecasts slightly while forecasting a slight increase in broiler production. Beef is now projected at 24.802 billion pounds, 75 million pounds less than in September. Cow slaughter is expected to be up; however, this will be offset by lower ste...
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.