Corn and soybean markets have been torn back and forth every day this week based on the 2012/13 supply and demand projections from the USDA Outlook Conference that concluded today. There was really nothing new in this week's numbers. The initial baseline projections were made public a few weeks ago (they were prepared back in November for budgeting purposes since USDA needs some basis for projecting farm program costs in future years).Corn has been the leading bearish attraction because of the widespread belief, supported by USDA's projections, that U.S. farmers are going to plant a lot of corn in 2012. There is no reason to argue with that assumption. Net per acre returns for corn far exceed nearly every other crop on today's farm crop b...
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...
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.