The recent announcement that Farmland Partners Inc. (FPI) just closed on a purchase of 22,100 acres in central Illinois in a deal valued at $197 million ($8,914/acre average) may explain complaints from farmers that cash rents are not coming down as fast as commodity prices. Buy High Stocks and bonds leave investors disappointed, but Gregory Meyer’s reporting in the Financial Times that many are now switching their money to farmland looks premature. China’s continuing farmland acquisitiveness may make sense given that it is both rich and paranoid about hunger. However, the latest announcement involves Farmland Partners Inc. (FPI), which just closed on a purchase of 22,100 acres in central Illinois in a deal valued at $197 million ($8,914/...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
What You Need to Know Today: Wholesale inflation was flat in July, with the Producer Price Index (PPI) unchanged versus expectations for a 0.2 percent increase. Core PPI rose 0.2 percent, also below expectations. The softer inflation data has reduced the odds of a September interest rate incre...
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.