World Perspectives

CBO Proposes Crop Insurance Spending Cuts

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a report, “Options to Reduce Budgetary Costs of the Federal Crop Insurance Program,” on 22 December. This is an exercise in presenting Congress with budget options, which the CBO does occasionally. It is essentially a laundry list of ways that Congress can reduce crop insurance spending via the farm bill. The options put forth would reduce spending by $47.5 billion over the next 10 years.

The report was not requested by any specific member of Congress, which is how many such efforts originate. However, these options follow a number of crop insurance reform plans introduced in Congress. The three biggest cost savings are: 1) eliminating the harvest price option; 2) reducing premium...

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Export Sales and Shipments for February 20-26, 2026. Wheat: Net sales of 203,100 metric tons (MT) for 2025/2026 were down 16 percent from the previous week and 42 percent from the prior 4-week average. Export shipments of 348,900 MT were down 35 percent from the previous week and 24 percent fro...

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Livestock Round Up: Preview of Feedlot Placements and Changing Canada Dynamics

Feeder cattle sales were up over a year ago in February, but much of that was due to February 2025 sales being light. Still, the increase in activity bears watching, both for what it implies about feedlot placements and for herd rebuilding.  In the four weeks ending February 27, total feed...

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Market Commentary: Geopolitics, Energy, and Macro Correlations Shape Agricultural Markets

Key Market Developments Markets opened mixed after reports that Iran signaled a willingness to discuss ending the conflict with the United States. Sentiment improved further after President Trump stated that U.S. strikes had significantly degraded Iranian military capabilities and outlined meas...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Export Sales

Export Sales and Shipments for February 20-26, 2026. Wheat: Net sales of 203,100 metric tons (MT) for 2025/2026 were down 16 percent from the previous week and 42 percent from the prior 4-week average. Export shipments of 348,900 MT were down 35 percent from the previous week and 24 percent fro...

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Livestock Round Up: Preview of Feedlot Placements and Changing Canada Dynamics

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Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.4375/bushel, down $0.0275 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.6825/bushel, down $0.0575 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.695/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $309.9/short ton, down $...

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From WPI Consulting

Communicating importance of value-added products

Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.

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