Oriens vs. Occido According to a 23 March Nikkei news report, Democratic Party of Japan officials say that the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations "are delayed beyond imagination" and progress has only been made on the two least controversial of 21 topic areas under negotiation. They theorize that this is good for Japan, since it means that Japan could join the negotiations as early as this summer and "have an easier time pushing its view on scrapping agricultural product tariffs and being involved in rulemaking."USTR has characterized TPP by saying the nine countries involved "made further strong headway during the eleventh round of negotiations that concluded today (9 March 2012) in Melbourne, Australia." Published reports state tha...
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.