General Comments The grain and oilseed markets continue to repeat the daily pattern we have seen since the fund liquidation started at the tail end of 2012. Prices were again firm overnight with soybeans trading as much as 9 cents higher, but the closer we got to daylight the weaker the markets got, and soybeans did a total collapse again after the open outcry session started trading at 9:30. The USDA's weekly export sales report did not contain any surprises. The sales numbers were small, as expected over the Christmas week. The market's early losses might have been in anticipation of another bearish round of production estimates from Informa. They obliged and raised their U.S. corn production estimate 75 million bushels and their soybe...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
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.