Shrinking Beef Supplies USDA releases the Cattle on Feed report tomorrow, and the consensus expectation is for numbers to be down – again. The total number of cattle on feed as of 1 September is expected to be only 93.5 percent of last year with August placements estimated at 91.6 percent of last year. Marketings are expected to be 95.5 percent of the previous year. Beef prices hit record highs again in August based on these supply chain fundamentals. All fresh beef hit $4.968, close to the magic $5.00 level. Animal Health Institute Embraces Antibiotic Use Report The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a report this week on antibiotic resistance in humans via veterinary drug use in livestock production. The Animal Health Insti...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Unlike the 2022 fertilizer shock, today’s disruption is rooted less in rerouted trade flows and more in damaged production capacity, raw material constraints and uncertain recovery timelines. That makes this a longer-duration risk for U.S. agricultural producers and retailers who must sec...
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.