There were several reasons to be bearish today and not much countering the mood. USDA’s Outlook released this morning framed the year ahead as fundamentally stable and an improvement over 2019. It will be for wheat with prices forecast to increase 8 percent and soybeans with a 1 percent rise, but a large corn crop is predicted, and prices are expected to plunge 6 percent. Essentially, all of last year’s prevented planting acres will be back and the current soybean/corn ratio indicates there will be sizeable acres going to corn, and even more to soybeans. Notably, farm debt and bankruptcies remain low and the January AgBarometer index showed farmer confidence the highest in six months. But probably not today as grains and...
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.