World Perspectives
livestock

Potential Squeeze Between Feed Cost and Line Speeds

Yesterday’s USDA acreage report was decidedly less friendly to the outlook for livestock than it was to corn and soybeans as it not only provided no relief on feed costs but made the situation worse. Livestock and poultry producers’ attention now will be on the July WASDE to see if USDA adjusts its yield estimates based on weather conditions in the western Corn Belt and the Plains.   At the same time feed costs are pressuring producers’ cost of production, hog and poultry producers are seeing a policy threat, in the form of slower line speeds at slaughter plants that could constrain harvest and impact the demand for hogs and birds moving forward.   For pork, a ruling by the federal district court of M...

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Market Commentary: Yield, Acreage Increases Sink Corn, Soybeans

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Venezuela Oil Situation and Oil Price Impacts

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Yield, Acreage Increases Sink Corn, Soybeans

The CBOT came under heavy selling pressure following the January WASDE as USDA unexpectedly increased U.S. corn acreage and yields. The USDA also added area to the soybean harvested and made a bearish cut to U.S. wheat demand, moves which sent all of the major commodity futures markets sharply...

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India Holds Out The most disappointed of U.S. trading partners has to be India. It has long held hope that it would succeed China as the largest foreign supplier to the American market. It is a natural foil to China, which has been politely designated by Washington as a strategic competitor and...

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The world woke up on Jan. 3 to news of the arrest of Nicolas Maduro, the self-proclaimed president of Venezuela. Few expected this move from the U.S. administration, but in hindsight it may not have been surprising. The Biden administration had placed a $25 million bounty on Maduro through the...

feed-grains

WASDE Corn - Jan 2026

USDA’s Jan estimate for 2025/26 U.S. corn is for larger production and higher feed residual usage to result in greater ending stocks: Corn production is estimated at 17.0 billion bushels, up 269 million on a 0.5-bushel increase in yield to 186.5 bushels per acre and a 1.3-million acre ris...

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From WPI Consulting

Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming

WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.

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