Cattle Market to Tighten in 2020 Going into 2020, the beef cattle inventory is likely to be down. The cattle inventory data will be released by USDA on 31 January, but based on 2019 trends, it is likely to be down from the herd as of January 2019, which, at 94.8 million head was slightly larger than at the start of 2018. The cattle cycle has been up since January 2014, when the herd hit 70-plus year low at 88.2 million head. But, 2019 saw herd liquidation as heifer retention decreased and the number of females in the slaughter mix increased. Through the end of November, beef cow slaughter was up 3 percent, the highest in more than five years. Dairy cow slaughter was up 2.3 percent. This is the fifth year of increased total cow...
What You Need to Know Today: As was widely expected, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points to a target range of 3.75–4.00 percent, its first rate increase since 2023, as policymakers respond to persistent inflation pressures. The Fed also signaled that additi...
Key Takeaways: USDA data access is equal; the ability to use it is not. Larger operations can afford experts who turn public reports into business decisions. Analytical capacity is the true advantage. Forecasts matter only when converted into profit, purchasing, and risk-management decisions...
From WPI Consulting
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.