The market opened mixed but ended mostly in the green. Prices were boosted by decent export sales, especially in wheat, very few deliveries against expiring May contracts, and of course short-covering. Although corn rallied back today it still lacks the rationale for a move higher. Unless China does something uncharacteristic, the overhang of surplus stocks is not going to go away. The International Grains Council (IGC) lowered its projected global grain use in 2019/20, including deleting 11 MMT of corn used for ethanol. Thirty-five percent of U.S. ethanol plants are off-line and the remaining 140 plants are running below capacity. There are visibly more cars on the road this week than in the past, but travel will remain...
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
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.