The westward movement of soybeans in the U.S. has been occurring for many years as hardier, shorter-season varieties have been developed. That is expected to continue as well as to the north with another significant variable also driving expansion of soybean planted area.Last Friday’s USDA Prospective Plantings Report surprised many with the larger-than-expected increase in soybean plantings for 2017. It projected an additional 6.049 million acres (7.25 percent) may be planted versus last year. A substantial boost was anticipated because of the poor profit outlook for corn and wheat, which farmers clearly indicated compels them to plant the crop that costs less to produce. Most likely, bankers had more than a bit to say about their planting...
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
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.