Last week, USDA released the combined U.S. and Canada livestock inventory report, which added a little additional clarity on the hog and pork situation. USDA reported that the combined hog and pig inventory in the U.S. and Canada at the start of June 2020 was 93.634 million head, up 4 percent on the year. Most of the inventory is in the U.S. at 79.634 million head (an increase of 5 percent). Canada’s herd at 14 million head is slightly higher than the year before. That combined total includes a market herd of 86.1 million head, 5 percent above the June 2019 total, and a breeding herd of 7.57 million head, a year to year decline of 1 percent. The pig crop was 84.2 million head, up 3 percent, while the number of sows farrowed during th...
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.