Ag Productivity On the one hand, agricultural productivity has been terrific. It moves along at a 1.67 percent annual rate, which by one estimate accounts for more than a tenth of total U.S. productivity growth for all industries. Ignoring wide swings from year to year, such as 2012's drought, the sector can more than outpace growth on the demand side. However, under Moore's Law, the amount of computing power that money can buy doubles every two years as researchers find ways to double the number of transistors per integrated circuit during that time period. And under Cooper's Law, the efficiency of use of the electromagnetic spectrum doubles every 30 months. Indeed, agricultural productivity could advance more quickly if the demand si...
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...
Unlike the 2022 fertilizer shock, today’s disruption is rooted less in rerouted trade flows and more in damaged production capacity, raw material constraints and uncertain recovery timelines. That makes this a longer-duration risk for U.S. agricultural producers and retailers who must sec...
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.