The Jewish Passover seder rite begins with the youngest person, the one least familiar with history, to ask the question, "Why is this night different from all the others?" And so begins the ritual explanation of the history of the Jewish people. Recently, Jason Henderson, a vice president at the Omaha branch of the Kansas City Federal Reserve, posed the economic equivalent question for agriculture: "Why is this farm land boom different from all the others?" He went on to explain the cycle of U.S. agriculture over the past 100 years. The following are some highlights.U.S. agriculture enjoyed two golden eras in the 20th century: the 1910s and the 1970s. Both were led by strong global demand and rising exports; both boosted agricultural com...
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
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.