Dennis Gartman (of The Gartman Report) reportedly told an audience to short John Deere stock because U.S. farmers won't have any money to buy farm equipment as a result of the 2012 drought. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The U.S. crop insurance program is so good that in some cases, farmers will make more money because of the drought than if they had normal yields. It is a revenue-per-acre insurance program that works off proven yield histories and two price calculation periods. The initial and minimum prices for corn and soybeans were established last February. The next price period is October, which is called the harvest calculation. Barring a total market collapse, the October calculation will be significantly higher than in...
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.