Livestock Domestic Live Hog Prices See Some Modest Gains A week after bottoming out following the back-to-back holidays, the average price for domestic live hogs improved by RMB .67/kg ($.04/lb.) or 4.7 percent. That helped the average operating loss per marketed pig to lessen by RMB 77/head ($11.21/head) or 23.7 percent. With the average domestic corn cash price edging downward, the corn-hog ratio recovered to 5.10. The announcement last week by the National Reform and Development Commission (NRDC) to purchase 20,000 MT of frozen pork for state reserves seems to have brought some relief. While the tonnage for the first round was relatively small, producers and market analysts also took stock in the idea that NRDC will continue to help ea...
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.