World Perspectives

Jones Act on Steroids; Aller Anfang ist Schwer; Copycat Limits

Jones Act on Steroids The Jones Act (Merchant Marine Act of 1920) requires that shipping between U.S. ports involve U.S.-built, owned, flagged and manned vessels. Cruise ships intentionally make a two hour stop in a foreign port to avoid the law. Half of U.S. overseas food aid must follow the law, meaning less food is shipped due to the higher cost. At present, the U.S. is ranked 19th in the work in shipbuilding, adding less than 10 new vessels per year, versus China at over 1,000. The Trump Administration is considering steep fees on imports brought in by Chinese built vessels, plus other measures to enhance American ship construction and utilization. It will be another ding against U.S. farmers and their export needs.   Aller An...

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FOB Prices and Freight Rates App (Updated 16 April)

Transportation and Freight Market Comments - 11 April 2025 By Matt Herrington Dry-Bulk Ocean Freight The trade war(s) and the possible Section 301 penalties against Chinese vessels docking at U.S. ports have kept freight markets exceptionally volatile in recent weeks. This week’s trend wa...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Low Volume with Profit-taking on Good Weather

After moving higher the past few days and weather improving in both North and South America, there was low volume profit-taking in grains and soybeans. By contrast, livestock products continued the rebound that began in earnest late last week.  While agriculture has been highlighted as a m...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 25 Corn closed at $4.8125/bushel, down $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  May 25 Wheat closed at $5.42/bushel, down $0.055 from yesterday's close.  May 25 Soybeans closed at $10.36/bushel, down $0.0575 from yesterday's close.  May 25 Soymeal closed at $294.2/short ton, down $2...

FOB Prices and Freight Rates App (Updated 16 April)

Transportation and Freight Market Comments - 11 April 2025 By Matt Herrington Dry-Bulk Ocean Freight The trade war(s) and the possible Section 301 penalties against Chinese vessels docking at U.S. ports have kept freight markets exceptionally volatile in recent weeks. This week’s trend wa...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Low Volume with Profit-taking on Good Weather

After moving higher the past few days and weather improving in both North and South America, there was low volume profit-taking in grains and soybeans. By contrast, livestock products continued the rebound that began in earnest late last week.  While agriculture has been highlighted as a m...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 25 Corn closed at $4.8125/bushel, down $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  May 25 Wheat closed at $5.42/bushel, down $0.055 from yesterday's close.  May 25 Soybeans closed at $10.36/bushel, down $0.0575 from yesterday's close.  May 25 Soymeal closed at $294.2/short ton, down $2...

livestock

Heifers on Feed Drop Below Replacement Heifers

One of the metrics we’ve been watching as a sign of herd rebuilding is the number of heifers as a percent of on feed inventory. However, we’re in new territory. For the first time since heifer on feed reporting began in 1996, the inventory of replacement heifers has fallen below Hei...

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From WPI Consulting

Communicating importance of value-added products

Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.

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