General Comments Like a never-ending soap opera, the Greek debt situation goes on and on. Every time an apparent solution is reached, something comes up to thwart and extend it. Today the finance ministers of the 17 eurozone countries abruptly cancelled a meeting at which final approval for the latest bailout package was expected. Apparently, the Greek government did not dot all or the required "i"s or cross the required "t"s to the satisfaction of the other eurozone countries.This further delay along with further downgrades of the sovereign debt of several European countries sent markets into a risk-off mode, which pushed the dollar higher and the euro lower. Equity markets including U.S. markets backed off, as did many commodity market...
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.