The U.S. biodiesel industry has renewed its efforts to convince Congress to change the recipients of the current $1/gallon biodiesel tax credit from blenders to producers. This is intended to prevent the credit from going to those blending imported biodiesel and thereby encouraging those imports. Soybean Sales to China Canceled USDA today announced that exporters had canceled the sale of 395,000 MT of soybeans to China for shipment in 2015/16. Most likely, this was an exporter shifting delivery of a sale to that country from the U.S. to South America, but it conceivably could be an importer having purchased more than it now wants to receive. As of 14 January, there were 4.412 MMT of these sales to China, and USDA on Monday reported that l...
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...
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.