World Perspectives

Toward a New U.S. Trade Policy

For many years U.S. agriculture was able to compete as a low-cost, bulk commodity supplier. Its farms were large and consolidated, enabling economies of scale. Education and a skilled extension service meant farmers could concurrently be agronomists, engineers, and marketers. Financing was sophisticated and technology was readily adopted. Countries used tariff and nontariff barriers to slow imports from the juggernaut American farmer. Then Russia took over the wheat market and Brazil increasingly dominates corn and soybeans.  America’s top five markets for agriculture each pose challenges: China: Decoupling is underway. Washington seeks to end dependence on the Middle Kingdom for solar, batteries, and previous minerals while de...

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Trudeau Resigns as Canadian Prime Minister

On the campaign trail in 2024, then-candidate and now President-elect Donald Trump proposed to levy tariffs of 10 to 20 percent on all imports, and 60 percent on imports from China. Then on the week of Thanksgiving, that changed to 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10 p...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: No Major Swings on More Positioning Ahead of WASDE

Corn opened lower but managed a quarter penny higher close, and hogs tried to follow cattle higher at the open but ended lower for a third session in a row, but the rest of the pack ended the day where it started with equally small changes.Fundamentals are helping corn, wheat and cattle, and so...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 25 Corn closed at $4.58/bushel, up $0.0025 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Wheat closed at $5.425/bushel, up $0.02 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Soybeans closed at $9.9725/bushel, down $0.005 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Soymeal closed at $303.5/short ton, down $3.8 from ye...

Trudeau Resigns as Canadian Prime Minister

On the campaign trail in 2024, then-candidate and now President-elect Donald Trump proposed to levy tariffs of 10 to 20 percent on all imports, and 60 percent on imports from China. Then on the week of Thanksgiving, that changed to 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10 p...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: No Major Swings on More Positioning Ahead of WASDE

Corn opened lower but managed a quarter penny higher close, and hogs tried to follow cattle higher at the open but ended lower for a third session in a row, but the rest of the pack ended the day where it started with equally small changes.Fundamentals are helping corn, wheat and cattle, and so...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 25 Corn closed at $4.58/bushel, up $0.0025 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Wheat closed at $5.425/bushel, up $0.02 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Soybeans closed at $9.9725/bushel, down $0.005 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Soymeal closed at $303.5/short ton, down $3.8 from ye...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: CBOT Rises as Precipitation Forecasts Fall

The CBOT tried – and mostly succeeded – to reverse Friday’s selloff with corn, wheat, and the soy complex all turning higher to start the first full trading week of 2025. The fundamental catalysts for the day’s strength were the slide in the U.S. dollar, thanks to more trade-friendly (or at lea...

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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.

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