While countries like Brazil and Ukraine are trying to consolidate farmland in order to gain efficiencies, Australia has always had some of the largest farms in the world. However, consolidation reached a peak in 2010 and the consolidation curve has flattened or even slightly declined. Like the U.S., part of the reason could be greater specialization, plus an increase in so-called hobby farming. With Australia, there are also the potential impacts of more frequent drought on land holdings. Once farms reach economies of scale, the more critical objective becomes the application of innovative technologies. Australia, together with the U.S. and Canada are considered the precursor countries in the adoption of precision agriculture and con...
What You Need to Know Today: The U.S. and Iran agreed to a peace deal on Monday with the deal expected to be signed Friday in Switzerland. The memorandum signed is explicit that Iran will allow 60 days of toll-free transit for all traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and President Trump annou...
Developer's Note: Last year, users pointed out differences between the 5-year averages reported in this app and what USDA estimates in its weekly report. The difference exists because WPI calculates average based on the last 5 years of observations for the current week. In cases where obs...
Wheat Rainfall across most of Argentina's agricultural regions during the past week slowed the pace of 2026/27 wheat planting. Even so, planting progress has reached 44.2 percent of the projected 6.5 million hectares, following a weekly advance of 11.8 percentage points. Fieldwork was concentra...
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.