This week the EPA asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to delay enforcement of a reporting requirment that had been previously exempted, and the National Pork Producers Council also filed a motion in support of that request. No Room for Mercosur Beef in the EU Trade talks between the EU and Mercosur have gone on so long that the EU is not even the same market anymore. They started in 1999 and ceased by 2004 until resuming in 2010. Since the discussions began, 14 Central and Eastern European countries have joined the EU and the UK has voted to leave. The latter development has changed the complexion of the negotiations, leading the Irish Farmers Association to demand that beef be excluded from the deal. This week Joe Healy, president of the gr...
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.