A bill that would prohibit the use of the term “milk” on the labels of soy, almond and other plant-based milks is working its way through the committees of the Virginia General Assembly. It is a companion bill to legislation that was already passed and enacted in North Carolina (and Maryland), but the Virginia and North Carolina legislation can’t be enforced until 11 other states enact similar legislation. Both bills use the authority of the Southern Dairy Compact (SDC), which was modeled after the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact (NEIDC) in place to regulate milk prices from 1996 to 2002. The states in the SDC adopted compact implementing legislation from 1997 to 2001. Maryland is not part of the compact. The 14 states...
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.