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An Era up in Smoke

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has proposed that anyone turning 15 years of age or younger in 2024 will be banned forever from purchasing cigarettes. Eash year, the age restriction will be raised by one year. The bill also makes vapes less appealing. The goal is to start the first generation that is not hooked on smoking. A similar effort to ban tobacco products was withdrawn last year in New Zealand.  Even without such Draconian approaches, cigarette consumption has fallen in many parts of the world. In the U.S., the smoking rate has fallen by 72 percent from 41 percent in 1944 to currently 10 percent. In response, the area planted to tobacco in the U.S. has fallen by 80 percent since its peak in 1997. Farmers have switched to pr...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.2375/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.1025/bushel, down $0.0775 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.53/bushel, down $0.0475 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $291.6/short ton, up $1.6...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Greenland Tweets Sink Macroeconomic Markets, CBOT and Ags Follow

The CBOT started off in risk-off mode Tuesday as rising U.S./EU tensions and odd dynamics in global macroeconomic markets (the rally in Japanese bond yields, in particular) unnerved investors.  The biggest driver of the risk-off trade was President Trump’s continued – and appar...

Greenland: More Tariffs on 1 February

Greenland is heating up in the latest news, and not due to global warming, but rather rising security concerns. President Trump said of Greenland, the semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been telling Denmark for 20 years that “you h...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.2375/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.1025/bushel, down $0.0775 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.53/bushel, down $0.0475 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $291.6/short ton, up $1.6...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Greenland Tweets Sink Macroeconomic Markets, CBOT and Ags Follow

The CBOT started off in risk-off mode Tuesday as rising U.S./EU tensions and odd dynamics in global macroeconomic markets (the rally in Japanese bond yields, in particular) unnerved investors.  The biggest driver of the risk-off trade was President Trump’s continued – and appar...

Greenland: More Tariffs on 1 February

Greenland is heating up in the latest news, and not due to global warming, but rather rising security concerns. President Trump said of Greenland, the semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been telling Denmark for 20 years that “you h...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

CFTC COT Report Analysis

Friday’s CFTC report showed the effects of USDA’s bearish January WADSE as managed money traders expanded short positions across the ag space for the fourth straight week. Funds shed 99,000 contracts from their all-ags position last week, with selling in corn accounting for 77,000 c...

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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.

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