The Pro Farm crop tour was completed this week and the results were interpreted as bullish for soybeans and bearish for corn. The bullish soybean story is the below- average soybean pod count across most of the western Corn Belt. We alerted clients to this problem last week. In fact, we believe the problem is worse than indicated by the Pro Farmer tour. The pod counts are compared to the three-year average. The error here is that last year was a crop disaster for corn and soybeans because of the drought. This year's counts look even worse if you throw out last year's tour numbers and use the previous three-year average. On top of that, the western Corn Belt is going to cook this weekend and for much of next week. That will result in...
What You Need to Know Today: Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans continued to accelerate, with USDA reporting another 558 KMT sold to China and 236 KMT to unknown destinations. Combined with sales announced Wednesday and Thursday, the latest purchases bring the three-day total to approximately...
From WPI Consulting
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.