The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a new cost estimate of the proposed Senate farm bill. Over the course of 10 years it would save $26.4 billion, or $3.4 billion more than the Ag Committee's original target. Over the five-year life of the bill, from 2013 to 2017, spending would be reduced by $10.6 billion. Commodity ($207 million) and Nutrition ($28 million) spending would actually increase in 2013 over the baseline before reductions come into play in 2014. Overall, the bill would spend $125 million more in 2013 than the baseline amount. Horticulture, Research, Crop Insurance and Forestry all would increase over the 10-year span of the bill by a total of $4.2 billion.As for commodity programs, there are no changes in 2013 proj...
Key Takeaways: A student group from the University of Chicago is protesting to bring back onion futures trading. Trading in onion futures was banned in 1958 following a spectacular bout of market manipulation that resulted in a corner of the physical market. The ban on onion futures led t...
Russian Grain Markets: 12–16 October 2026 During the week in review, the Russian grain market began recovering after an extended decline driven largely by Black Sea logistics bottlenecks, a good crop and weaker global demand in traditional Russian markets. Russia is beginning to harvest c...
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.