At the rate canola plantings are expanding in Canada, there may not be many years before the country's canola area surpasses its total wheat area. USDA Forecasts 4 Percent Increase in 2014 U.S. Soybean Plantings USDA's first estimate for 2014 U.S. soybean plantings is 79.5 million acres, which is almost a 4 percent increase over last year's 76.533 million acres. Assuming the same national average yield (45.2 bushels/acre) USDA used in its long-range projections and a harvested area of 78.5 million acres, the resulting 2014 crop would be 3.548 billion bushels (96.58 MMT). Because of this large crop forecast, USDA is estimating the average U.S. soybean price in 2014/15 at $9.65/bushel ($354.54/MT). That would be a 24 percent decline from th...
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...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
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.