The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has recently reported on an interesting trend in agriculture lending: the market share of agricultural loans shifted more toward large commercial banks in the second quarter. According to national survey data from the second week of May, the share of non-real estate loans originated by large banks relative to their smaller counterparts jumped to the highest level in nearly 20 years. Loans originated with large banks are near record highs and conversely loans originated with smaller banks are at near record lows.Driving this move is the rising costs of production including feed, seed and fertilizer. Indeed, farm debt outstanding at all commercial banks grew 3.2 percent in March which is the hig...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
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.