Beef Cattle and DDGS Demand Last week, Livestock Roundup covered the topic of beef production which was the lowest 1 July beef herd since at least 1973 and a 21 year-low of beef production coming in 2014. With that bearish forecast still fresh in mind, we received EPA's announcement of the 2013 and 2014 required volume obligations for biofuels that hints at maybe lower ethanol mandates for corn ethanol and definitely lower mandates for advanced ethanol. Combining the cattle report and the ethanol announcement makes us think about DDGS.Not all of the drought and after-affects are over to date and seasonal beef production has actually spiked relative to cattle herd size. While this is the fourth straight year of production declin...
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...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
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.