There was a lot of activity last week in preparation for the upcoming United Nations climate meeting to be held in Glasgow, including a new U.S.-EU methane reduction agreement outline and a discussion among the G20 ag ministers about climate and ag policies. First, on Saturday, the U.S. and EU announced the Global Methane Pledge, which covers abatement and mitigation efforts for oil and gas, coal, landfills, and of course, agriculture, specifically animal ag. The pledge has a collective goal of reducing global methane emissions by 2030 by at least 30 percent from a 2020 baseline level, through “additional domestic methane reduction and international cooperative actions.” The best news is that the efforts do not include reducing...
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...
From WPI Consulting
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.