Wheat, corn and soybean markets started higher Sunday night, and they held those small gains throughout the entire session. The relatively light volume then continued through today to start the week before Christmas. The market had been expecting an announcement of additional soybean export sales to China this morning following the one late last week for 1.4 MMT, but there were none. Markets still managed to start slightly higher with wheat and soybeans holding small gains for the day. Meanwhile, corn finished fractionally lower. While weekly export inspections were slightly larger than last week, they were not big enough to generate any enthusiasm. World weather might eventually create some concerns, but no one was worried today. Parts o...
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.