U.S. hog producers saw a mixed year in 2024 with early-year prices bringing poor profitability while the dramatic hog rally since the summer has lifted financial fortunes significantly. A major component of those rising prices was the unexpected surge in pork demand, which pushed the cutout to new seasonal highs this fall. Now, producers, packers, and pork buyers are wondering what 2025 will bring and how demand and prices will fare in the post-election environment. WPI has just completed an update to our long-term (one-year forward) outlook for the hog and pork markets. The major findings from this effort are that producers are likely to see strong prices for the coming year, and if crop prices do not rise significantly, strong profit...
What You Need to Know Today: Attention is turning toward Friday's USDA WASDE report, with traders looking for updated corn and soybean production estimates and revisions to domestic and global supply-and-demand balances. The report could help establish a clearer direction for grain price...
Key Takeaways: U.S. beef production is forecast to fall 10.5 percent in 2026 and remain unchanged in 2027, despite a mild recovery in fed cattle slaughter. Record beef imports will help offset shrinking domestic production, with imports forecast to increase 14.0 percent in 2026 and anoth...
The Trump import plan for 300,000 MT of beef supplies used for ground beef, i.e. lean trim, from September through November has, according to Secretary Brooke Rollins, brought some relief to beef prices. The Executive Order states that the Secretary of Agriculture will analyze and review the ma...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.