There is currently little incentive – other than the RFS mandate – to blend more ethanol if the price increases or the price of gasoline decreases in the coming year.The battle over the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), now going into its 10th year, is as hot as ever with both sides weighing in heavily before the end of this month when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will issue the final rule on the required volume obligations for years 2014, 2015, and 2016. The RFS volume obligation for 2014 will be based on the amount of ethanol produced and used that year, which EPA likely underestimated when it issued the proposed rule in May 2015. The proposal included an implied 13.2 billion gallons of conventional corn ethanol, which will...
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.