General Comments Peculiar dynamics in commodity markets can sometimes stand out as red flags. The sole rally in the July corn contract last Friday was noted as an example. That price action appeared somewhat exaggerated in its bullish anticipation for several reasons. First, there is not a global shortfall of corn and panicked buying is unnecessary, unlike the need to acquire stocks in previous periods such as 1995/96. That lack of threat was displayed on Friday in the price action of corn contracts from December onward. Domestic stocks are tight, but it is feasible to bring South American corn to deficit regions of the United States. Lastly, fewer and fewer elevators are basing their spot prices off of the July contract. As a resul...
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
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.