Later this month, USDA will release the quarterly Hogs and Pigs report sizing up the swine herd as of 1 September. There are a lot of reasons – none of them really good – to anticipate this report. Reports from Iowa State University show wean to finish operators have been in the red on a per head basis for 10 months, originating late last year. Sow slaughter has been up since about June and in the June quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report, farrowing intentions for the June through August quarter were down 3.6 percent, and farrowing intentions at that time for the quarter starting today through December were down 4.4 percent. Both make sense in context of sow liquidation. Will those reduced farrowing plans be followed through? Will tha...
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) enters its mandated six-year review on 1 July. The original intent of the review is outlined in Article 34.7, which obligates members to: Provide recommendations and decide on appropriate actions. Extend the USMCA for another 16 years and meet aga...
Key Market Insights Geopolitical Limbo: Geopolitical risk remained a key driver across global commodity markets today. President Trump stated that the Iran memorandum of understanding is not yet final and warned that military action could resume if negotiations fail. Both sides continue w...
Key Takeaways: Drought remains a major threat to global agricultural production, particularly in regions with limited rainfall and growing water scarcity. Commercially available drought-tolerant traits in corn, soybeans, and wheat have generally delivered modest yield improvements, limiting th...
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.