The Federal Reserve recently released its minutes on the 31 July – 1 August Federal Open Market Committee (FMOC) meeting, giving insight into the central bank's thinking coming into the 12-13 September meeting. Those insights were sharpened a bit by Chairman Ben Bernanke in a speech today at the Jackson Hole, Wyoming symposium. Bernanke noted that Operation Twist (buying more long-term Treasury bonds) asset purchases have been "economically meaningful" in lowering borrowing costs and improving stock prices, touted the Fed's commitment to low interest rates, and generally noted that "nontraditional policies" (such as quantitative easing and Operation Twist) have "manageable costs" that are outweighed by their "meaningful" benefits.Moreover...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
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.