There has been talk about the impact of this winter and even some special spring and summer forecasts that are highlighting how the current U.S. weather situation and outlook compares with the Dust Bowl summer of 1936.It’s hard to believe the Northern Hemisphere planting season lies just around the corner when much of the U.S. remains mired in the depths of one of the coldest winters on record. It is a sure bet the northern Plains will have endured one of the 10 coldest winters on record, and it could push this year into the top five if the latest forecast holds true for another super cold week. California is still suffering one of its worst droughts ever. The East Coast has endured one megastorm after another, and the total number of airli...
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...
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.