USDA always holds its annual Agricultural Outlook Forum in late February. Among other things, there has been great interest in learning its latest views on what planted acreage will likely be for various spring planted crops.USDA no doubt has good reasons for always scheduling its annual Agricultural Outlook Forum in late February. This is usually the slowest time of year for most of U.S. agriculture. Old crop supplies have been tallied, and nearly all new crop planting activities are still weeks away. Patterns of demand for old crop supplies have usually developed by now, but there are still matters of uncertain speculation for the next crop. In short, it is a time when competing activities are slow and chances for good attendance at Outlo...
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.
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...