Regional News Europe has faced heavy rains and dramatic storms in recent weeks that are causing profound concerns for winter crops. While the rain has refilled depleted soil moisture profiles, it could cause signifcant quality issues for the winter wheat crop and damage winter rapeseed and other plantings. Furthermore, weather forecasts call for a sharp dip in temperatures across the Baltic countries where little snow cover is available to protect crops. It is too early to tell what the production impacts might be, but many traders are already penciling in 5+ percent reductions into balance sheets. Heavy rainfall and flooding in the Netherlands are causing issues with logistics, transportation, and operations at many ag proces...
What You Need to Know Today: Iran says its definition of the Strait of Hormuz is now a “vast operation area” that stretches from Jask to Siri Island. The White House said President Trump did not sign a suspension of the TRQs on beef imports but is “finalizing potential...
If the media headlines and Trump critics are to be believed, President Trump is headed to Beijing this Thursday in a weakened position. China is in control, it has the upper hand, and expectations are very low. These are the same critics that argue against overly simplistic zero-sum analyses in...
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.