It now looks like Omicron is manageable, which supports macros and ethanol but otherwise there are few new commodity market inputs. That led to an opportunity to unwind overbought positions in wheat, corn, and soybeans. The fundamentals are the same and the corrections may spark some buying on the breaks. The weather outlook is steady with a chance of isolated precipitation in droughty parts of South America but not enough to lift concerns over adverse impacts to crops. The corn crop is the most adversely impacted and around a quarter of Argentina’s corn is silking amidst overly hot and dry conditions. By contrast, it is so overly wet in central and northern Brazil that cities are in states of emergency over flooding. One gover...
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.