Ethanol After Argentina's large investment in biodiesel plants during the last few years, the next step will be developing corn crushing plants to produce ethanol. Nowadays there are more than 20 projects in the country, and it is estimated that about $1,500 million are needed for these plants. The projects would have a significant impact on the corn sowing area since there would be higher demand. This could increase the area by a minimum of 10 percent in the short term. Working at full capacity, the plants are estimated to require between 3-4 MMT of corn supply. Some analysts are estimating that the corn crushing plants could have similar effects in Argentina as the ones in the U.S., such as giving benefits to farmers as well as increas...
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.