What we are unable to forecast are the inevitable surprises that always appear.As we begin each New Year, it has become our habit to peer into our proverbial crystal ball and make some ad hoc forecasts about the year ahead that are generally related to agriculture and markets. We have no particular expertise, experience or insight that qualifies us to do this, but we do it anyway, mostly to amuse WPI's clients. We refer to these in grand fashion as predictions or forecasts, but of course they are nothing more than somewhat educated guesses. However, we take some comfort from the fact that most, if not all, of the many lists of predictions about the forthcoming year that are produced by numerous so-called experts fall into the same guesswork...
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.