The trade mitigation package announced by USDA on 27 August includes direct payments to producers of hogs and milk in addition to those of crops. Below is a quick look at the math for these unusual hog payments. The payments will be known as Market Facilitation Payments (MFP). While those for milk will be based on production records used for the Margin Protection Program (MPP) at a rate of $0.12/cwt with dairies in operation on 1 June eligible, hogs pose a more interesting problem. Producers will be eligible for a payment of $8.00/head (roughly $2.88/cwt of a slaughter-ready market barrow or gilt) owned as of 1 August. However, a person or legal entity that has a contract to grow the hogs but does not own them on that date is ineligible fo...
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.