To NAFTA or Not Reports indicate that the Trump administration is prepared to announce tomorrow that it has reached agreement with the Mexican government on a package of major NAFTA 2.0 changes. The Mexican side was less committal as of Wednesday evening. Last week President Trump told his top trade negotiator Robert Lighthizer not to rush into a deal, but on Tuesday evening he told West Virginians, “We’re on our way with a good deal - a fair deal with Mexico.” Time has reportedly been made available for an announcement tomorrow. However, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross then announced late today that there is no deal yet, but there could be one in the “very near future.” Indications were that a deal...
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.