As always, grain and soy markets along with those who trade in those commodities are looking ahead at several factors with the potential to move prices. Currently among those are the following: - USDA will release this month’s estimates of U.S. planted acreage for major crops on 29 June. These are based on surveys conducted in early June, and they are normally USDA’s final estimates unless there were planting delays that suggest possible late changes. However, that is not the case this year. The consensus is that USDA will find the planted area for corn and soybeans to be slightly larger than the March planting intentions of 88.0 million and 89.0 million acres, respectively, due to favorable weather and timely planting. Expecta...
What You Need to Know Today: President Trump suspended the planned attacks on Iran and announced that the pieces for a framework for peace were in place in a weekend social media post. Iran, however, later said no efforts were underway to conduct negotiations with the U.S., though Oman indicat...
Key Takeaways: E15 expansion would support corn and ethanol demand by increasing domestic biofuel consumption and reducing reliance on petroleum-based fuels. Year-round E15 has gained bipartisan momentum, but the policy remains in legislative limbo as lawmakers continue to negotiate provisions...
From WPI Consulting
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.