In just two years, African Swine Fever is likely to have reduced Chinese pork production by more than a third. However, Oklahoma State University economist Derrell Peel correctly notes that the disease will likely impact the global livestock market for many years to come. A possible proxy for the situation is the impact of Mad Cow disease in Europe during the 1990’s. EU beef production peaked in 1991 at 11.8 million tons. But after more than a decade of battling the disease, European beef production had fallen by 30 percent and it has never recovered from this lower production level. Constrained by lower production and import quotas, EU beef consumption remains nearly 35 percent lower than at its peak. Instead, pork consumption...
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.