CORN As of today, 93 percent of the expected area has been planted, representing a year-on-year delay of more than five percentage points. Some late-planted fields may remain unseeded due to a lack of soil moisture. Rainfall remains absent, while persistently high temperatures are increasing crop water demand. Corn crops are beginning to suffer, and both crop condition and soil moisture ratings continue to deteriorate. Currently, 52 percent of the corn crop is rated excellent to good, a decline of 12 points week-on-week and 32 percentage points over the past two weeks. An additional 37 percent of the crop is rated fair, while 11 percent is rated poor. Regarding moisture conditions, 52 percent of the area is rated optimal to adequate, down 1...
Key Takeaways: Continued domestic demand for soyoil in the U.S. will drive prices higher and create a firmer outlook for global soybean values and crush margins. U.S. soyoil prices are set to increase 13-16 percent over the next four months as the domestic demand expansion takes hold. Th...
Key Takeaways: Tensions in the Persian Gulf are further away than ever from being resolved, as the ceasefire has fallen apart completely and the U.S. and Iran are back to trading blows. Ships are still cautiously exiting the Strait of Hormuz but at a much slower rate than just a few week...
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.