Over fifty years separate 1968 and 2020 yet there are parallels. Both years have involved contentious U.S. national elections, political turbulence, violent riots, a global flu pandemic, a novel first in space flight and long hair! However, unless things dramatically change, there is no parallel when it comes to the major row crops. In 1968 there were large increases in global wheat and soybean ending stocks but declines in corn production and carryout. Wheat was the largest crop back then but now the world produces 50 percent more corn than wheat. The production of all three major crops is up substantially with wheat paralleling the increase in population but corn and soybean production substantially outpacing people. Soybean production i...
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...
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.