When agreement is weak and a lot must get done, the political and logistical solution is big lumpy omnibus bills laden with lots of sweeteners to placate the grumpy. Omnibus Trade Bill The U.S. Congress was too sharply divided to reach agreement on the traditional, dozen legislative measures used to fund the government each year, but it did manage to reach agreement earlier this month on one behemoth (1,582 pages) bill called the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014. Meanwhile, the new Agriculture Act of 2014 affects 15 percent of household budgets and weighs in at just under 1,000 pages. It goes to the President for signature as early as next week (see below). When agreement is weak and a lot must get done, the political and logistica...
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.