Since the start of 2020, the value of the nearby soybean contract has risen in value by over 25 percent. That compares to 7.28 percent for corn and 5 percent for SRW wheat. But this is not a single year story but rather a long-term dynamic. While rice remains the single most valuable crop in the world, followed by livestock, corn and then wheat, soybeans claim the title for the largest global value growth over a decade (see graph below). Rice and wheat are predominantly food crops and thus have stable demand but less diverse uses. Soybeans, and number two in value growth corn, are more diversified as their value chains have larger splits into food, feed, and fuel. But the demand for soybeans is pacing closer to the expansion capacity in pr...
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.