The U.S. government shutdown has entered its third week, and there appears to be no end in sight yet. This has affected nearly all of USDA’s reporting functions, which fall under the part of government that is considered “non-essential” and is furloughed. USDA has already postponed the series of reports that were scheduled to be released 11 January until after the government shutdown ends and its analysts have time to study all pertinent data. There are also no daily or weekly export sales reports, etc. A retired grain trader observed that market analysts will have to revert to “old-fashioned” ways to figure markets out. The trouble, of course, is that there are no old, retired grain analysts around who remem...
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
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.