The market is being forced to re-evaluate demand by the surprisingly large volume of export sales since the beginning of 2014. This surging demand has also added a few new considerations to this year's acreage debate between corn and soybeans.In this, our winter of discontent, we seem always to be preparing for the next storm even before we have finished cleaning up from the last one, and there is always a next storm. The relentless progression of winter storms followed by frigid temperatures moving from the Plains to the East Coast is having a considerable impact on U.S. agriculture. The weather has seriously disrupted all forms of transportation. Barges on inland waterways have been locked in by ice. Rail movement has been slowed, making...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.