World Perspectives
livestock

Dairy Crisis Fix; Steel and Subsidies; Turning Russia

Dairy Crisis Fix The U.S. dairy industry has spent decades myopically focused on extracting high prices for milk out of American consumers. The Federal Milk Marketing Order system is so complex that only an elite few understand how it operates. All the while per capita milk consumption has been plummeting. Exports have been growing at nearly 4.5 percent per year despite the near lack of interest by the industry. For example, the global market demands mozzarella lower in salt, but the domestic industry insisted on making it saltier because that fit the domestic market. Now the reality of the market situation has hit like a 2x4 and a study has recommended some form of revamp. It appears the reality of the situation will finally force some ha...

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Market Commentary: Big Nothingburger

It was a good thing that futures markets closed early today given that there were very few inputs to guide movements. The U.S. government was closed in observance of President Jimmy Carter’s memorial, so reports like weekly Export Sales are delayed until tomorrow. Wall Street and the...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 25 Corn closed at $4.56/bushel, up $0.02 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Wheat closed at $5.34/bushel, down $0.0225 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Soybeans closed at $9.99/bushel, up $0.045 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Soymeal closed at $299.3/short ton, down $1.5 from yeste...

livestock

Livestock Roundup: Market Conditions Transitioning from 2024 to 2025

Last year, cattle markets were driven by tight supplies of cattle, heavy carcass weights, low cow culling rates, higher input costs, more imports of feeder cattle, and the detection of New World Screwworm in Mexico in November. All were factors in record prices. The focus now turns to 2025, and...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Big Nothingburger

It was a good thing that futures markets closed early today given that there were very few inputs to guide movements. The U.S. government was closed in observance of President Jimmy Carter’s memorial, so reports like weekly Export Sales are delayed until tomorrow. Wall Street and the...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 25 Corn closed at $4.56/bushel, up $0.02 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Wheat closed at $5.34/bushel, down $0.0225 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Soybeans closed at $9.99/bushel, up $0.045 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Soymeal closed at $299.3/short ton, down $1.5 from yeste...

livestock

Livestock Roundup: Market Conditions Transitioning from 2024 to 2025

Last year, cattle markets were driven by tight supplies of cattle, heavy carcass weights, low cow culling rates, higher input costs, more imports of feeder cattle, and the detection of New World Screwworm in Mexico in November. All were factors in record prices. The focus now turns to 2025, and...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Comfortable, With Jitters

There was generally low volume in grains today as traders await USDA’s important reports on Friday. There is no reason to spend more money on fees or commissions after spending several days aligning with the perceived outcomes. At the same time, market noise does not completely stop and there i...

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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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