General Comments The question of whether the recent rain makes grain or reduces planted corn acreage is being debated, but determining the answer to the question will take a while. USDA said 86 percent of the corn crop had been planted by 26 May, a 15 percent increase from the 19 May report. How much corn will be planted this week is another question, since it will stay too wet and muddy in much of the western Corn Belt. Moreover, another system is due to produce rains over much of the Midwest later this week. Realistically, we doubt that much corn planting progress will occur this week. A gain of another 5 percent is probably all that can be hoped for, and that could prove to be overly optimistic.However, for the sake of argument, suppo...
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.
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...