In the last, but certainly not least, of the Senate Ag Committee's series of farm bill hearings, lawmakers have finally made their way to the commodity title -- but not without some additional delay. A late afternoon advisory from the committee said that votes on the highway bill have delayed tomorrow's farm bill hearing until Thursday. That will be the day of a long, three-panel hearing on the commodity title, a consensus on which has proved to be elusive. As evidence of that point, below are some of the key witnesses and what they are expected to say on Thursday in support of their various farm bill proposals.All of the above proposals -- except for AFBF, which cuts it drastically to fund other mechanisms -- would eliminate direct payment...
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.