To state the obvious, corn and soy futures markets reacted to the flash drought with a vigorous weather premium rally that peaked yesterday, then paused to take a breath today. The current short-term heat wave, displaying some of the hottest temperatures of the summer in the Corn Belt, has joined with the ongoing precipitation deficit in western and central portions of the Belt that has been dubbed the flash drought. Because the maturity of Midwest crops has been lagging ever since so much of them were planted late, the current heat combined with the lack of moisture has hit with potentially greater negative impact on crop yields, especially for soybeans, than might otherwise be expected in late August.Actually, the Midwestern drought is...
What You Need to Know Today: Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans continued to accelerate, with USDA reporting another 558 KMT sold to China and 236 KMT to unknown destinations. Combined with sales announced Wednesday and Thursday, the latest purchases bring the three-day total to approximately...
Key Takeaways: With the fall calf run now upon us, producers are finally getting a glimpse of what their realized profits will be for 2026. Some producers may have already obtained a strong estimate of 2026 revenues, especially if calves were forward sold in, for example, the mid-summer...
As fall begins, wild migratory birds are starting their seasonal migration. That has the industry and government officials worried about the potential spread, again, of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Some members of Congress have called for the United States to be prepared for a pote...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.