Retail beef prices have tested the consumer limit with 13 percent growth over the past year, while pork prices have been tempered by increased slaughter weights and uncertainty about the longer-term impact of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv). Meat and Livestock Overview Feeder margins dropped last week but remain solidly in the black at $223.51 per head, according to the Sterling Profit Tracker, and compares with a negative margin of $74.62 at this time last year. This has allowed feeders to aggressively pursue what cattle are offered. The $200/cwt line has floated up to heavier cattle after starting at 5-weight and then moving up to 6-weight before reaching 7-weight. According to USDA reports, 7-weight cattle in several Midwestern...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
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.