Aid Dependency Many poorer nations are dependent of foreign aid, including food donations, but so are some agriculture groups. Because of the war in Ukraine, the Biden Administration announced an increase in foreign food assistance. This will include the extraordinary use of CCC subsidies to cover transportation costs for the food aid since normally the labor union-backed Jones Act causes a large percentage of food aid money to be used for U.S.-flagged vessel transportation costs. Also aided by the foreign assistance are domestic wheat growers since their commodity often stars in the aid package to the tune of around one million tons. To show their generosity, U.S. wheat growers said they “are ready again in this crisis to hel...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
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.