While farmers may have a positive view of the Indian government’s action on Tuesday that reduced the royalty Monsanto can charge for planting its patented biotech Bt cotton, this will likely prove to be very negative for them in the future. USDA Raises U.S. Soy Ending Stocks on Smaller Domestic Crush USDA made relatively few changes in its supply/demand forecast for soybeans in yesterday’s WASDE report. However, it did raise its estimate for 31 August 2016 U.S. soybean ending stocks by 10 million bushels to 460 million bushels, which was a result of its reduction in the 2015/16 U.S. crush estimate by the same amount. USDA indicated the crush was lowered due to its decreasing the domestic soymeal demand forecast by 200,000 ST to 33.3 milli...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
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.