Despite recent decreases in feeder cattle futures and rising feedstuff costs, estimated cow-calf producer margins are largely unchanged from WPI’s October estimate. The stable and positive financial environment means that producers are still facing strong financial incentives to expand the U.S...
McDonalds has entered the sustainability space by partnering with Syngenta and paying cattle producers to use Syngenta’s Enogen Trait corn to improve feed efficiency. Enogen corn contains an enzyme, alpha amylase. This enzyme has been added during the ethanol production process to induce starch...
Turkey production in August totaled 434.7 million pounds, slightly above July production but down 11 percent year-over-year. August slaughter was down 15 percent year-over-year, but heavier weights in August (32.25 pounds) offset the reduced slaughter. Based on the August production data, estim...
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.