General Comments After a slow start, grain and soy markets continued their impressive rally again today with most contracts posting double-digit gains. The spot March soybean contract managed to close above $13.00 and the highest level in more than five months. Corn posted a seven-week high and has now completely recovered what it lost in the aftermath of USDA's bearish January reports. And wheat -- well, wheat just goes along for the ride.The main driver today was freshly managed investment money entering or returning to the grain markets. Funds bought near 20,000 corn contracts and 9,000-10,000 soybean contracts. Funds also bought about 5,000 contracts of CME wheat, but that was mostly covering a small slice of the record large fund sh...
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.