The Thanksgiving holiday is coming up in about six weeks. It is a major driver of retail food shopping, with turkey as the key driver of proteins. Looking back at the past two years, the holiday was impacted in 2020 by COVID-19 which resulted in less travel and smaller Thanksgiving dinners. Those smaller gatherings were helpful to other proteins as consumers opted for less traditional turkey dinners in lieu of beef and pork cuts. Demand rebounded in 2021, and when coupled with production and supply chain problems for turkey, retail prices were up about 24 percent over 2020. Currently, wholesale prices of whole frozen turkeys are up about 32 percent over the same week in 2021. Prices for frozen Grade A 8-16 pound hens are $1.67 to $1...
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.