Dairy policy has always been highly politicized from Lyndon Johnson’s time in the Senate in the 1950s right up through this week as USDA announced a major initiative to help boost milk prices.Former President Lyndon Johnson once tried to explain the byzantine structure of dairy policy when he was serving as Senate majority leader by observing that every state has at least one dairy cow and two senators. Indeed, dairy policy has always been highly politicized from Johnson’s time in the Senate in the 1950s right up through this week as USDA announced a major cheese purchase in order to help boost milk prices.As observed here recently, low commodity prices going into this election year have sparked reactions from both Congress and the administ...
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.