Beef Feedlots North and South America USDA's latest Cattle on Feed report showed the total number of cattle on feed at 10.89 million head, down 3 percent compared with the industry expectation of a 2.2 percent drop. Placements during September were 2.004 million head, 19 percent lower than last year and the lowest for the month since the series of reports started in 1996. Marketings were 12 percent below year-ago levels and were the second lowest for the month since the start of the series. Of course, this is a bow wave impact of two years of drought in the United States. Meanwhile, cattle feeding in Brazil is on the uptick because of the drought. Soybean prices are encouraging pasture conversion and displacing cattle. While the moveme...
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.