Yesterday Bob Kohlmeyer shared his typically keen and instructive insight on the upcoming farm bill (see Ag Perspectives, 16 November). His fluency in all things commodity related, from markets to policy, comes from years of intimate involvement. As our former colleague Gregg Doud once commented in discussing Dan Morgan’s bestselling book Merchants of Grain, “You and I read about it; Bob lived it.” Bob’s oft-warned general observation about the farm bill process is that “farm bills often tend to be written about the past with little attention paid to the future.” The proof is certainly the 2014 Farm Bill that dropped the Direct Payment program as farmers argued it would not be possible to justify a decoup...
What You Need to Know Today: After a period of limited activity, USDA reported a sizeable 613 KMT in soybean export sales, including 330 KMT to China and 283 KMT to unknown destinations, potentially also China. The purchases represent a meaningful pickup in demand and bring China closer to ful...
Key Takeaways: Consumer spending is a key driver of the U.S. economy, and the latest retail sales data indicate that spending remains robust despite inflation. In September, total retail and food service sales rose more than 6 percent year-over-year, with food service spending up 7 percent and...
The Trump import plan for 300,000 MT of beef supplies used for ground beef, i.e., lean trim, from September through November has, according to Secretary Brooke Rollins, brought some relief to beef prices. The Executive Order states that the Secretary of Agriculture will analyze and review the m...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.