With prospects for the 2013 corn and soybean crops rapidly improving enough to dismiss production concerns -- at least for now, we can safely turn our attention back to the old crop U.S. 2012/13 year as it winds down. We confess to some sort of fascination in watching strong demand deal with shrinking supplies of soybeans and corn. This is strictly a U.S. game. Thanks to the large South American soybean and corn production, the rest of the world is reasonably well supplied with both for a while. Only the U.S. faces some degree of a tight supply situation as a hangover from the drought-reduced 2012/13 production. Whatever happens during the rest of the 2012/13 crop year for soybeans and corn will depend on how domestic demand plays out aga...
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...
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.