The Senate resumed consideration of the farm bill yesterday and adopted two amendments.The 2012 Senate farm bill pitted northern crops against southern crops and led to much controversy. The bill coming out of the Senate markup last year lost the support of southern state senators because of its projected impact on regional crops. Senators Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi), Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) and John Boozman (R-Arkansas) all voted against the bill in committee. This year, Senator Cochran became the ranking minority member, and the southern crops got a bit of a better shake in the committee bill. However, northern state senators Mike Johanns (R-Nebraska), Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) and John Thune (R-South Dakota) voted against final passa...
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...
Key Market Insights Geopolitical Limbo: Geopolitical risk remained a key driver across global commodity markets today. President Trump stated that the Iran memorandum of understanding is not yet final and warned that military action could resume if negotiations fail. Both sides continue w...
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.