Energy Policy Update President Obama proposed in his budget an increase in spending on renewable energy and a cut in the tax credits used by the oil industry. Meanwhile, several European countries are ending their alternative energy subsidies as part of needed budget reform and recognition that they do not deliver the necessary results. As noted by Daniel Yergin, the Pulitzer Prize winning chairman of Cambridge Energy Research, it is difficult to compete with the low relative cost of the highly concentrated energy in fossil fuels. But the effort goes on nonetheless. Just days after a House committee called for more study on E-15 ethanol, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cleared it as having no ill health effects. Allowing E-15 will b...
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.