World Perspectives
livestock

Livestock Roundup: High Prices and China Persist

What a difference a year makes! No one will forget how out of balance cattle markets were in 2022 with margins steeply favoring the packer, while feedlots saw their margins shrink away into negative territory.  In fact, it was such a factor that we suffered through a year of misguided attempts to “fix” the market with all kinds of adjustments to cattle pricing.   However, in the past year, feedlot margins are up more than 1,300 percent, according to Sterling Beef Profit Tracker, going from $29.33/head in 2024 to $419.93/head last week. Last week’s highs were up from already high margins of $366.40/head the previous week and $278.73/head in mid-February. Packer margins, meanwhile, remained in the red with a -...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

CFTC COT Report Analysis

Friday’s CFTC report showed funds further expanding long positions across the major ag futures contracts for the sixth straight week. Funds added 176,000 contracts (60 percent) to their all-ags net long position, with strong and mostly uniform buying across the ag sector.  The soy co...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Green Despite Many Obstacles

There was mostly green on the board for Friday and for the week as a whole. Another contract high was printed by soyoil as higher energies, higher inflation, and heightened geopolitical tensions all favored commodities.  There are some topical contrasts. For example, the cattle market is t...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.485/bushel, up $0.05 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.915/bushel, up $0.17 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.7075/bushel, up $0.0725 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $320.5/short ton, down $0.4 from...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

CFTC COT Report Analysis

Friday’s CFTC report showed funds further expanding long positions across the major ag futures contracts for the sixth straight week. Funds added 176,000 contracts (60 percent) to their all-ags net long position, with strong and mostly uniform buying across the ag sector.  The soy co...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Green Despite Many Obstacles

There was mostly green on the board for Friday and for the week as a whole. Another contract high was printed by soyoil as higher energies, higher inflation, and heightened geopolitical tensions all favored commodities.  There are some topical contrasts. For example, the cattle market is t...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.485/bushel, up $0.05 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.915/bushel, up $0.17 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.7075/bushel, up $0.0725 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $320.5/short ton, down $0.4 from...

livestock

Cold Storage Report: Up over Last Month, Down on the Year

The Cold Storage report for January showed that red meat and poultry supplies rose from the month ending December, but total supplies are down from a year ago and well below the 5-year average. Total supplies were 1.878 billion pounds, down 2.5 percent from a year ago. This indicates a tighteni...

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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.

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