In recent years, the last week of August and/or the first week of September have been the best bets for the timing of seasonal lows for CME grain and soy futures prices. The reason for this is that for the last several years, prospects for very large harvests of corn and soybeans about to get underway have forced farmers to make way for those crops in their storage bins by selling the last of their old crop ownership. This has weakened spot basis bids and pressured futures prices just ahead of the new harvest. The same thing has been happening again this year. Despite the low flat prices, there has been a considerable country movement of old crop corn and soybeans this week. That has added to the market’s overall bearishness and sent...
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.