Trade Wars and Surrender With this week’s retaliation announcements by China and the EU, the trade war has begun. Then again, all trade and trade policies comprise the weapons of competitive battle. One hawkish observation is that until now, China has been in a one-sided trade war. However, real war brings death and is coated in euphemisms like “collateral damage” or “boots on the ground” to make it more palatable. Economic competition is the reverse, using a dysphemism like “war” to make aggressive trade or currency competitions sound more serious. This week also brought White House announcement that the diplomat John R. Bolton will be the new national security advisor. Some refute that he is a d...
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.