Last week, WPI previewed the Farm Computer Usage and Ownership report. It has been released and is worth a re-visit given the implications for precision agriculture, which at this point is a crowded field, but has a long way to go for wide adoption. Here are some highlights. More farmers use smartphones than have a computer – 82 percent to 69 percent. Internet access is shockingly low in some states, for example in Ohio, only 69 percent of farms are covered with internet access. The national average is 82 percent, with many states in the low 90-percentage range. The southwest is the lowest, with Arizona and New Mexico with only 65 and 55 internet coverage for farms. As we reported last week, according to the...
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) enters its mandated six-year review on 1 July. The original intent of the review is outlined in Article 34.7, which obligates members to: Provide recommendations and decide on appropriate actions. Extend the USMCA for another 16 years and meet aga...
Key Market Insights Geopolitical Limbo: Geopolitical risk remained a key driver across global commodity markets today. President Trump stated that the Iran memorandum of understanding is not yet final and warned that military action could resume if negotiations fail. Both sides continue w...
Key Takeaways: Drought remains a major threat to global agricultural production, particularly in regions with limited rainfall and growing water scarcity. Commercially available drought-tolerant traits in corn, soybeans, and wheat have generally delivered modest yield improvements, limiting th...
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.