A fire broke out at JBS’ beef packing plant in Grand Island, Nebraska late Sunday night. The fire was reportedly caused by a boiler exploding in the rendering section of the plant. Local news reports cited the Grand Island Fire Department as saying the roof was on fire around 10 PM Sunday night. The Grand Island Fire Department’s twitter feed reported fourth and fifth alarms were issued by 12:28 AM Monday morning. JBS said on Facebook that “fabrication and slaughter A and B shift will not be working September 13, 2021”. The fire comes as JBS was investing nearly $100 million in to expand the plant’s capacity. The fire will likely be a major issue for the U.S. beef and cattle industry and WPI will c...
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.