Farm Bill Issues: There are at least two issues bubbling up amidst the effort to reauthorize the U.S. farm bill: BOBSAT and dairy. With farmland values rising and crop production highly valuable, U.S. government determinations under the so-called "Swampbuster" rule, which governs the conversion of prior wetlands to crops, reportedly are "really heating up." If it boils over, the issue could get reopened in a 2013 farm bill. One description of how the government makes its determinations is "BOBSAT," or Bunch of Biologists Sitting Around a Table.The ability to move a farm bill in the House gets down to placating House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on dairy. He strongly opposes the effort by dairy farmers to use supply controls in order to b...
Yesterday, Alberta held a referendum on whether to begin the process toward independence from Canada. With more than one million votes counted as of early Tuesday morning, around 77 percent supported remaining in Canada, and 23 percent voted to start the process of separation, according to unof...
What You Need to Know Today: Harvest pressure in the U.S. sent corn and soybeans lower as supplies increased and there were signs USDA’s upward revisions to yields in the October WASDE could be close to right. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated over the weekend, with Ukrai...
Key Takeaways: India is excluding sugarcane juice, sugar syrup, and B-heavy molasses from its 2026/27 fuel ethanol procurement program to protect domestic sugar supplies, potentially shifting additional demand toward corn and rice. India’s corn consumption for ethanol has surged from jus...
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.