Despite the very high weekly corn crop condition ratings that persist even though they should begin a seasonal drop, there appears to be widespread skepticism about USDA’s extraordinary yield estimate.USDA’s August WASDE is quite literally one for the record books. 2016/17 U.S. corn and soybean production were both forecast to be record large and the U.S. all wheat crop the largest in eight years. The estimated national average yields for all three crops would also set new records, if realized. The estimated corn yield of 175.1 bushels/acre would obliterate the old record of 171 bushels/acre set in 2014/15. Other record estimates for 2016/17 in the WASDE include those for world wheat production and ending stocks, world ending corn stocks an...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.