General Comments The Fed FOMC two-day meeting is underway with the usual statement due Wednesday afternoon. In it, the Fed is expected to reiterate again its intention of leaving interest rates historically low for quite some time.Some of the driest crop areas of Argentina received a good dose of rain late yesterday and early today. Northern portions of Buenos Aires, southern Santa Fe and the western section of Cordoba received 1-2 inches. It was the best rain in almost three months, and it should help stabilize Argentine crops. Rainstorms have crossed into southern Brazil, and they should be equally beneficial. This is the second major rain event in two weeks. Weather models foresee another Argentine rain system about a week from now.Al...
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...
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.