The December WASDE made few changes to its outlook for the world grain supply and demand situation, which left the CBOT to essentially continue its existing trends. Wheat futures sold off 10-12 cents lower and soyoil joined the weakness and broke a major technical support zone. Soymeal continued rallying to new contract highs but that could not support the soybean market, which fell to 2-cent losses. Soybeans and corn traded both sides of unchanged as the WASDE offered little in the way of a fresh outlook. The December WASDE featured only minor changes to the U.S. crop balance sheets, as is typical of the year-ending report but an outcome that was not expected this year. USDA trimmed the U.S. corn export forecast by just 75 Mbu and r...
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.
The corn and soy complex closed higher, with the wheat market mixed, as winter wheat closed up but spring wheat and livestock ended lower. Part of the strength for corn and soybeans may have been a weather premium, as crop planting has started out fast but warm weather has been slow to develop...
Real GDP grew at a 2 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2026, slightly below the consensus expectation of 2.3 percent but above the 0.5 percent growth in Q4 2025. The GDP number matches the average annualized pace of growth since the peak back in late 2007, right before the Financial P...
Reflect for a moment on what you eat. There is a lot of advice out there in the ether about what you should eat, but really, what do you currently eat and how much? The good people at the USDA have some data for you, to help you answer that question. USDA says that we eat quite a bit of meat. L...