Livestock Big Live Hog Price Increase As expected, the June survey of major hog producers in China reveals that the live pig price has begun to take off. Through July 17, China’s nationwide average live hog price had reached RMB 17.84/kg ($2.60/kg) or RMB 8.09/lb. ($1.18/lb.), an almost 5 percent increase in one week. It was the largest week-on-week uptick since the week of March 13. The price is up nearly 30 percent since the beginning of the year or an average of 1 percent per week. At this pace, food inflation will likely exceed 9 percent in July and put additional pressure on China’s strained economy. Dueling Pig Data Sources Early last week, China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) and...
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...
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.