Ethanol exports are starting the year strong, but there is some uncertainty in major markets.The March World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report from USDA raised the estimate of corn to be used in ethanol production by another 50 million bushels to 5.4 billion during the 2016/2017 marketing year. For the calendar year to date, the weekly average production of ethanol is more than 1.044 million barrels per day, which on an annualized basis would result in 16.01 billion gallons. Obviously, with a cap on conventional ethanol use of 15 billion gallons under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), there is a large amount of U.S.-produced ethanol that needs to find a home in the export market.Last year, according to data from the E...
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.