Farmers and the markets were hoping to learn more today about how USDA plans to allocate the $12 billion that the Trump administration has promised to pay U.S. farmers as compensation for lost export sales to China because of the tariff war. As the U.S. ships little/no corn or wheat to that country, soybeans will be the obvious focus of the payments as those are the exports in jeopardy. Some estimates of direct payments are as high as $1.65/bushel for soybeans, which would generate an immediate payment of $82/ acre if a farmer’s yield is 50 bushels/acre. This will put cash in farmers’ pockets and likely keep soybeans in their bins. A residual impact of the loss of soybean exports to China is that interior domestic soybean bas...
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.