The September USDA reports again verified just how severely U.S. corn and soybean production was impacted by the drought of 2012. We can all still argue about what final yields, harvested acres and crop production will be, but we can't argue about the fact that extreme supply rationing must occur and that the rationing process must occur quickly. Whether or not we add or subtract 100 million bushels of corn production or 40 million bushels of soybean production isn't that important any more. The table below shows total U.S. corn and soybean demand for the previous two marketing years compared with the latest USDA estimate of what it will be in this new marketing year.We must curtail corn consumption by 1.8 billion bushels from the 2010/11...
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.