Prospective Plantings Report Indicates Small Drop in Soybean Plantings Today's USDA Prospective Plantings report indicated U.S. farmers intend to plant slightly fewer acres to soybeans this year (77.126 million acres) than last year (77.198 million acres). This was a bit surprising since I and many other analysts expected a substantial increase in plantings. However, the plantings estimate declined because the expected increase in plantings in key Midwestern states was offset by declines in Minnesota and some southern states. Farmers in Minnesota indicated they intend to plant only 96 percent as many acres to soybeans this year as last and intend to plant more corn. Farmers in the South and in the Plains states apparently have decided to...
Key Takeaways: Brazil confirmed a Newcastle disease outbreak at a commercial turkey farm in Santa Catarina on 18 October, raising concerns about potential disruptions to poultry exports despite the outbreak being confined to a single facility thus far. Mexico and Malaysia have imposed nationwi...
Yesterday, Alberta held a referendum on whether to begin the process toward independence from Canada. With more than one million votes counted as of early Tuesday morning, around 77 percent supported remaining in Canada, and 23 percent voted to start the process of separation, according to unof...
Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Pakistan’s smaller wheat farmers have been holding protests to complain about the lack of a support price for wheat and the potential expansion of GMO crop production. They also want the reinstatement of PASSCO, the governme...
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.