Farm Bill Prognosis A recent survey of economists indicated most do not believe a new U.S. farm bill will be enacted this year. Some speculated it would be 2025, and still others thought 2026. The 2018 Farm Bill is currently on extensions that expire later this year. The Senate Agriculture Committee has issued ideas for revisions but has not marked up legislation; the House Agriculture Committee marked up its version of a new law on 23 May but it has not been scored and a final text has not been issued. Democrats are concerned about Republican efforts to limit domestic food assistance, and to redirect climate resources to farm supports. Members of both parties are willing to use past temporary emergency spending (covid, trade war) t...
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...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.