The Senate Agriculture Committee has scheduled hearings on the Rural Development and Energy titles of the farm bill as well as the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act of 2022 (DCCPA), which got a lot hotter after the FTX collapse. While this is still the 117th Congress, the rural development hearing was billed as the first for the 2023 farm bill which will be taken up in the next Congress. There will be few changes to the Senate Committee membership – there were only six Senators on the Agriculture Committee up for election this year and five won their races. The outstanding race is the Georgia run-off election of Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia), and former Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) retired. If Warnock wins, givi...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
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.