The COVID19 outbreak is like a pinball bouncing from sector to sector of the economy. In agriculture, for example, with shutdowns in place, transportation energy use is down, which has reduced ethanol demand, which in turn has reduced the production of DDGS, which in turn is creating a new puzzle for feed formulations with high inclusion rates of DDGS, such as cattle, dairy and to a lesser extent hogs. With more corn, and less DDGS, feed formulas are going to have to adjust back to the old school days before ethanol co-products were so prevalent. Generally, that is good for soymeal. That’s an interesting twist after today’s planting reports came out above expectations on corn and below on soybean planting. Tomorrow...
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.
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...