July is a critical month for corn and soybeans are made in August so short of freak events like last week’s derecho, this year’s crops are nearly past any troubles. Next week’s U.S. Midwest weather brings below normal temperatures and less precipitation, which is better than high temperatures and low precipitation, and the cooler temps are beneficial to pod filling. Globally, July 2020 has tied July 2016 as the hottest month on record, but crops are grown locally where conditions can vary tremendously. The heat in France has adversely impacted the corn crop but that has not been the case in the U.S. Midwest. France is about the size of four U.S. Midwest states and while there have been many warm days in corn and soy...
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
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.