USDA Acting Undersecretary Michael Scuse yesterday testified on behalf of the Administration at the Senate Agriculture Committee hearing. Scuse defended the use of permanent disaster funds, citing that 200,000 producers were covered under the five new permanent programs from the 2008 Farm Bill. All programs expired on 30 September 2011, at the beginning of FY 2012.The Administration proposes to extend these disaster assistance programs or implement similar programs -- either through the 2017 crop year or to the end of the next farm bill -- at a cost of about $8.4 billion over 10 years. Direct payments would be eliminated; but, permanent disaster funds would be combined with crop revenue coverage to provide a safety net and fill the role of...
What You Need to Know Today: Declining crop conditions ratings and shaky results from the Pro Farmer crop tour sent grains sharply higher on Tuesday. The Pro Farmer tour in Ohio pegged the state yield at 180.18 BPA, about 5.5 BPA below the tour’s 2025 estimate. Similarly, the Pro Farmer...
Based on a Depression-era statute, President Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion of exports to the U.S., or about 5.2 percent of the $383 billion worth of goods the U.S. imported from Canada in 2025, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Of that total, about $39.3 billion was agricu...
Key Takeaways: Brazil’s growing role in global agriculture is accompanied by a major vulnerability: the country imports approximately 88 percent of its fertilizer needs. High natural gas costs and development challenges have limited domestic nitrogen and potash production despite Brazil&...
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.