Since COVID and the bottlenecks it created in livestock slaughter, populism has been the hallmark of agriculture policy debates on Capitol Hill, especially livestock, and even more so the cattle market. With the beginning of the 2023 farm bill process, that hasn’t slowed, even though the cattle cycle and the economics of the livestock and meat sectors have shifted dramatically. There have been four straight years of cattle herd liquidation, and with drought the highest cow slaughter ever, the highest heifer slaughter in two decades, and a bow wave of record beef production (2022 was the fourth consecutive record). And that demand resulted in high cattle prices. Cattle prices will remain high based on tight supplies. The culling...
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
Infrastructure investment due diligence
On behalf of a Canadian oilseed processer WPI's team provided market analysis, econometric modeling and financial due diligence in support of a $24 million-dollar investment in a Ukrainian crush plant. Consistent with WPI's findings, local production to supply the plant and the facility's output have expanded exponentially since the investment. WPI has conducted parallel work on behalf of U.S., South American and European clients, both private and public, in the agri-food space.