When summertime grain markets are weak due to perceptions of large crops and abundant supplies, they typically find seasonal lows during the last days of August or the early few days of September. General Comments Grain and soy prices continued to grind slowly lower during overnight trading amid mostly average volume. Another sharp drop on the part of the U.S. dollar to its lowest level in two years has not changed the philosophically bearish mindset that has prevailed ever since the post-August WASDE rally ran out of gas. The U.S. Labor Day holiday is 4 September, which represents the symbolic end of summer even if the calendar says that autumn will not begin for another two-and-a-half weeks. When summertime grain markets are weak due to...
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...
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.