When the old year passes into a new year, it is common to look back at the important events, trends and other features of the old year (as we did last week for 2011). It is also tempting to dust off the crystal ball and try to forecast or guess what might be those important events, trends and features of the new year. This temptation is particularly strong for economists, which we are not, but also for market watchers, which we often are. It makes sense, we suppose, since by their very nature futures markets are predictors of the future, albeit with a relatively narrow focus.We must acknowledge, however, that in the case of grain futures markets, their narrow focus has been forced to widen in recent years. In part this is due to economic...
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
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.