World Perspectives
livestock

Cow-Calf Profitability Improves, Indicates Herd Rebuilding

Southern Plains cow-calf producers’ margin outlook continues to improve despite the recent pullback in feeder cattle prices. Returns on an inflation-adjusted basis remain below those of 2014 and 2015 but are now within striking distance of those records and could easily break them this fall. The improved profitability suggests producers will be expanding the beef cow herd and retaining heifers this fall, with beef heifers retained for breeding expected to increase 6 percent from 2024. 2025 Outlook U.S. cow-calf producers continue to see record-breaking market conditions that are creating excellent opportunities for operations to see record or near-record profits again this year. WPI readers are already likely well aware of the record...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Pushing Toward New Lows on Bearish Supplies

There was higher volume today trading corn and hogs, and lower volume in the soy complex and SRW.  New contract lows were printed for corn, SRW, and HRW.  Yesterday’s crop progress report reflected potentially stellar crops and yield estimates from private analysts continue to p...

Infuriating Ingratiation; Soul Crushing Jobs

Infuriating Ingratiation Based on European press reports, the terms of the transatlantic trade deal (see Tariffs as a Tax) are less objectionable than the “humiliation” of “submission” to the U.S. But that is just Europe being its usual “bantie rooster.” ...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.02/bushel, down $0.05 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.0825/bushel, down $0.085 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $9.9075/bushel, down $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $284.9/short ton, down $0.1...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Pushing Toward New Lows on Bearish Supplies

There was higher volume today trading corn and hogs, and lower volume in the soy complex and SRW.  New contract lows were printed for corn, SRW, and HRW.  Yesterday’s crop progress report reflected potentially stellar crops and yield estimates from private analysts continue to p...

Infuriating Ingratiation; Soul Crushing Jobs

Infuriating Ingratiation Based on European press reports, the terms of the transatlantic trade deal (see Tariffs as a Tax) are less objectionable than the “humiliation” of “submission” to the U.S. But that is just Europe being its usual “bantie rooster.” ...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.02/bushel, down $0.05 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.0825/bushel, down $0.085 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $9.9075/bushel, down $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $284.9/short ton, down $0.1...

Snacking Turmoil

There are a lot of issues working against the snack world right now from tariffs to cocoa and sugar prices, to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) ban on dyes and artificial colors.  Let’s take a look. First, there is the ongoing volatility of cocoa prices. Prices have been in an a...

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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.

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