Traders recognize that grain and soy complex prices are likely to remain volatile going into USDA's Prospective Plantings report that will be published on 30 March. Numerous market participants are attempting to analyze various fundamental factors. The following is a response to recent discussion points that may provoke some thought.True enough, the nearby soybean and corn ratio has recently been trading around 1.85. Typically, a ratio declining below 2.4 would increasingly give farmers incentive to plant corn rather than soybeans. However, U.S. farmers do not look at the nearby contracts when making such determinations. Instead, they look at the ratio between the November soybeans and the December corn contracts during the February-March...
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
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.