Markets have been struggling since the partial government shutdown started due to the lack of any fundamental news that is typically gathered/released by USDA and other agencies. While the government is now reopened, however, USDA, the CFTC and, most likely, other governmental agencies decided to take a bizarre approach to catching up on the release of missed reports and data. Instead of releasing the most relevant weekly data as quickly as possible, they plan to spend a month issuing old reports incrementally (see Market Commentary, 30 January). Yesterday USDA published the weekly export sales report for the week ended 20 December, and the CFTC is taking a similar approach with the Commitment of Traders reports that detail what major grou...
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.