The House Appropriations subcommittee marked up the FY 2014 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations bill on Wednesday, 5 June. That bill funds the discretionary funding for agriculture research, food aid, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and federal nutrition programs. The bill also addresses some mandatory funds with regard to nutrition. The bill totals $19.5 billion in discretionary funding, which is $1.3 billion below the FY 2013 enacted level and approximately equal to the current level created by automatic sequestration spending cuts. This total is $516 million below the president's budget request for these programs.The bill was passed out of subcommittee by a v...
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.