With enough corn and soybeans committed for export thus far in the marketing year to account for 98.5 and 83 percent of USDA’s projections, respectively, USDA will have to increase its export projections. The degree to which forecasts are increased, however, will depend on...The USDA reduced the U.S. soybean export forecast in its March WASDE report by 25 million bushels which was a small surprise to the market. The soybean export pace has been so strong that many analysts had been looking for an increase in the export forecast, not a reduction. The level of soybean export sales has backed off from the aggressive pace of 45 to 60 days ago as the South American crop has started to become available, but sales would have to drop to zero to hol...
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.