Business and politics are not too different in that change is constant and adaptation is essential to survival. When commodity prices increase, the sector attracts younger, more skilled workers. When commodity prices decline, there is consolidation. Xi Jinping and Donald Trump are trying to calculate whether their respective political markets have more room for risk-taking or if it is time to consolidate. The U.S. and China are said to be working on a trade deal, but while President Trump boasts of new impending tariffs, his trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, says he expects there to be a meeting of the minds in Buenos Aires. In a similar vein, President Trump says he does not expect significant congressional opposition to his U.S.-M...
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...
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.