Clients may recall the disruptive regional dairy policy known as the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact (NEIDC) which was in place from 1996- 2002. If not, a quick primer follows:The NEIDC empowered an appointed commission – made up of state bureaucrats and dairymen - to effectively set the minimum farm gate price that bottlers must pay for fluid milk. It was intended to be a temporary measure to tide over dairy farmers in the six New England states until a more comprehensive national dairy policy reform – unachievable during the 1996 farm bill debate - was crafted. In all, it cost consumers in the northeast at least $130 million in higher retail milk prices before it expired in 2002. Though the New England states comprised only 3 percent...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Unlike the 2022 fertilizer shock, today’s disruption is rooted less in rerouted trade flows and more in damaged production capacity, raw material constraints and uncertain recovery timelines. That makes this a longer-duration risk for U.S. agricultural producers and retailers who must sec...
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.