Hurricane Harvey is creating export challenges, but robust yield estimates keep pressuring grain and oilseed futures. The cattle and hog markets took diverging paths with cattle earning triple-digit gains and hogs suffering triple-digit losses. General Comments Grain futures were mixed in moderate volume overnight trade to start the week. Corn futures closed slightly lower, while soybeans managed to close a few pennies higher. All three wheat futures contracts closed 2.5–3 cents lower.Most of the early pressure on grain futures came from Friday’s Farm Journal Crop Tour report, which estimated the U.S. national corn yield at 167.5 bushels/acre (BPA) and the national soybean yield at 48.5 BPA. It estimated corn and soybean production would...
There are plenty of major headlines moving across the markets today, but the reaction beneath them remains cautious. Crude oil is holding steady despite reports of progress involving the Strait of Hormuz, corn and soybeans remain tied to changing weather forecasts, and wheat continues to weigh...
Key Takeaways: Sugarcane is the world’s largest crop by total production volume, surpassing major commodities such as corn, wheat, and soybeans, and supplies roughly 80 percent of global sugar production. Sugarcane’s perennial growth cycle allows farmers to harvest multiple crops f...
Russian Grain Markets: 27–31 July 2026 Russian grain prices declined sharply during the week under review as new-crop supplies entered the market and demand weakened. Corn and barley prices declined, while both milling and feed wheat and rye experienced larger losses. The harvest campaign...
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.