China is currently short of domestic production in the face of growing demand and prices have more than tripled since the 2003 BSE ban. China Beef Trade Ten Years After BSE U.S. trade officials traveled to China last week for talks regarding bilateral trade issues, including beef. According to reports of the trip, the Chinese promised to ease restrictions on U.S. beef that were first put in place 10 years ago this month in reaction to the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the U.S. These curbs will be lifted by July 2014. The move is tied to China's increasing beef demand.According to the U.S. Meat Export Federation, China is only one of several countries still imposing restrictions on U.S. beef because of BSE. Other m...
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...
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.