Trading in grain and soy complex futures resumed Monday evening, and prices began to firm after a hesitant start. More of the same prevailed during the day session as one particular trend led to some of the buying. General Comments Trading in grain and soy complex futures resumed Monday evening after the long holiday weekend, and prices began to firm after a hesitant start. The trend during years of big crops, which is that seasonal lows often occur just before serious harvesting gets underway, led to some of the buying. There were also concerns that Midwestern corn and soybean crops are facing two weeks of dry weather as they finish their growing season, a development that could possibly shave something off yield prospects. The corn crop...
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...
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.