Last week we made note of two events of importance to American agriculture that took place 50 years ago in 1963. One was the referendum in which U.S. wheat farmers voted down a proposal for mandatory restrictions on the amount of wheat acreage each farmer could plant in exchange for a "high" $2.00/bushel price support. There were to be harsh penalties for non-compliers. It was the first time that U.S. farmers rejected a government supply management proposal.The second event we recalled from 1963 was the first major sale of U.S. wheat to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War approved by President Kennedy shortly before he was assassinated. His approval unfortunately contained the proviso that 50 percent of any tonnage...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
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.