Last week, we covered the Hogs and Pigs report which showed the swine herd still in contraction mode but slowing down from earlier in the year. The September and June inventory was 99 percent of last year, compared to March and December at 98 and 96 percent, respectively, of the prior year. Also, farrowing intentions for September through November were steady from the prior quarter at 99 percent of a year ago. We noted that there are a lot of reasons why producers would resist expansion: exports through August (in data released today) are down 15 percent, though the good news is August 2022 exports are up fractionally from August 2021 and the largest volume since November 2021. Domestic demand is weak due to inflation and inventories of po...
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...
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.