The overall mood of the markets has been so bearish over the past several months that it was somewhat refreshing to see at least one day, Wednesday, when significant buying returned -- if only for a day. What the market really demonstrated Wednesday was that it only took a hint of a potential streak of hot and dry weather to push prices sharply higher. It was probably also aided by the fact that last year's major price rally also started this week. The difference so far, of course, is that this year's rally lasted one day while last year's rally took us to new all-time highs in corn and soybeans.Nearly everyone except producers want to see bearish markets, especially following several years of extremely high prices combined with extreme 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.