House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Oklahoma) has announced his intention to convene a markup for the 2013 Farm Bill on or about 15 May. The Chairman's mark has not yet been crafted, but it is expected that it will be much the same structure as last year's bill, which means it will need to find additional savings. As we noted on 5 March, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) re-scored the House farm bill with updated assumptions. This resulted in less savings -- almost half of which comes in the nutrition title because of changes in assumptions about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).Lucas will face pressure from his fellow House Republicans to cut more from SNAP, which makes the bill more difficult to p...
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.