Regional News The EU Commission lowered the region’s corn and soybean 2020 yields in its 26 October monthly bulletin. The EU corn yield was revised 5 percent lower from the agency’s September estimate to land at 7.42 MT/ha. Similarly, soybean yields were pared back 1.3 percent to 3.01 MT/ha. The reductions were largely motivated by data revisions reflecting the extent of summer drought conditions. Southern and western Europe are trending drier in the next two weeks while central and eastern Europe see normal precipitation. The UK will see above-average rainfall in the coming weeks. Notably, temperatures for nearly all of Europe will be above average this week. Light showers are forecast for eastern Ukraine and sout...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
We have described the long-term investment climate in crop and livestock production, using data primarily from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The data provided background on the current investment climate and outlook for agricultural capital formation. Our conclusion was that investment...
From WPI Consulting
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.