World Perspectives
livestock

Cattlemen Dinged on Leather

The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed demand for fashion generally and this has reverberated to the leather industry. The hide, which is the largest component of slaughter’s byproducts, only adds about 3 percent to a rancher’s income but has nonetheless been important. A glut of hides in recent years coupled with a drop in U.S. exports has sent the price falling. Because of COVID, the export market for hides and skins fell by 22 percent during the first half of this year compared to 2019. The worse may be yet to come. Some theorize that once animal welfare advocates kill off the fur market, leather will be their next target. The decline in leather sales will not just hurt raw product producers like the U.S. but value-added processor...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

CFTC COT Report Analysis

Friday’s CFTC report showed that funds are slightly increasing bullish bets across the ag space, primarily in the soy complex and livestock futures. Managed money traders’ net ag position (the combined position across the soybean complex, the three U.S. wheat contracts, corn, and th...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: No Raucous End to the Week

With no new input on fundamentals, traders passively went through the day making only minor changes. Monday’s crop progress report will provide some input, and especially focus on the May 12 WASDE. It will be the first keen look at the balance sheets for MY 2025/26.  It was the fifth...

North Dakota and Glyphosate

Bayer CEO Bill Anderson averred in a recent Wall Street Journal interview that the company will make a decision “in months” - not years – whether it will remain the only domestic producer of glyphosate in the U.S. Anderson became CEO in 2023 and at the time promised to have th...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

CFTC COT Report Analysis

Friday’s CFTC report showed that funds are slightly increasing bullish bets across the ag space, primarily in the soy complex and livestock futures. Managed money traders’ net ag position (the combined position across the soybean complex, the three U.S. wheat contracts, corn, and th...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: No Raucous End to the Week

With no new input on fundamentals, traders passively went through the day making only minor changes. Monday’s crop progress report will provide some input, and especially focus on the May 12 WASDE. It will be the first keen look at the balance sheets for MY 2025/26.  It was the fifth...

North Dakota and Glyphosate

Bayer CEO Bill Anderson averred in a recent Wall Street Journal interview that the company will make a decision “in months” - not years – whether it will remain the only domestic producer of glyphosate in the U.S. Anderson became CEO in 2023 and at the time promised to have th...

soy-oilseeds

U.S. Soybean Crush Margin Outlook

U.S. soybean processing margins have seen considerable volatility over the past month as multiple fundamental factors upended global oilseed and product prices. The most obvious influence was the recent trade war and tit-for-tat escalation in tariffs between the U.S. and, which was exacerbated...

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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.

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