Farm Bill Angle Aggies are trying every angle feasible for getting a five-year farm bill through the lame duck Congress. The latest is offering up the cuts already proposed in the pending farm bill versions as part of the grand bargain budget deal. Some say that a temporary extension would be even more difficult to pass than a bill offering budget cuts. Senator Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota) is trying his own version of a bill as a solution, but others say it is just a Northern Plains-slanted proposal. Killing Social Agriculture If small, local and organic agriculture were not burdened enough already by market economics, the Tellus Institute and Sustainalytics are ready to pile on. Their report entitled "Worker Equity in Food and Agricul...
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.