General Comments The markets opened steady to higher Sunday based on less-than-expected rainfall across Argentina and a basically dry, warm forecast throughout this week. Soybeans eventually traded as much as 20-22 cents higher with corn 5-6 cents higher and wheat 7-9 cents higher. That all started to change at midmorning when wheat turned lower. That, in turn, dragged corn lower and brought soybeans well off their highs. Some blamed the weakness in corn and wheat on spread selling against long soybean positions, in addition to crude being down hard (more than $1.50) and the dollar index gaining nearly 0.5 percent.U.S. financial markets were also struggling after closing above 14,000 last Friday. A poor manufacturing index number plus...
Yesterday, Alberta held a referendum on whether to begin the process toward independence from Canada. With more than one million votes counted as of early Tuesday morning, around 77 percent supported remaining in Canada, and 23 percent voted to start the process of separation, according to unof...
Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Pakistan’s smaller wheat farmers have been holding protests to complain about the lack of a support price for wheat and the potential expansion of GMO crop production. They also want the reinstatement of PASSCO, the governme...
What You Need to Know Today: Harvest pressure in the U.S. sent corn and soybeans lower as supplies increased and there were signs USDA’s upward revisions to yields in the October WASDE could be close to right. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated over the weekend, with Ukrai...
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.