World Perspectives
livestock

Livestock Round Up

Hold on to Your Meat Packing Plant Job    The most interesting news today was the unemployment numbers; the U.S. Department of Labor announced that for last week, initial claims for unemployment benefits was 3,283,000, an increase of 3,001,000 from the previous week's revised level. Not surprisingly that is the largest number in history – the previous high was 695,000 in October of 1982, about 21 percent of last week’s claims. However, you can bet that not many of those claims were filed from people losing jobs in the meat packing sector. All the major packers have increased hourly rate for the next several weeks (typically through April) and are paying attendance bonuses and incentives to keep operations moving volu...

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Jul 26 Corn closed at $4.635/bushel, down $0.0025 from yesterday's close.  Jul 26 Wheat closed at $6.1675/bushel, down $0.035 from yesterday's close.  Jul 26 Soybeans closed at $11.785/bushel, up $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  Jul 26 Soymeal closed at $319.1/short ton, up $2.6...

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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.

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