China’s enormous influence on the pork market is now greater than ever as USDA is projecting that the country will account for more than 25 percent of global pork trade in 2017. Now it is a force for increases in another category of exports. USDA Buying More Cheese While in Wisconsin (a battleground state in the presidential election) on Tuesday, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the department intends to buy $20 million worth of cheddar cheese. The solicitation will be forthcoming from USDA. This follows a previous announcement in August (see Ag Perspectives, 24 August) regarding USDA’s plan to spend $20 million on 11 million pounds. The goal of both announcements was to prop up dairy prices and divert the purchased cheese to fee...
The corn and soy complex closed higher, with the wheat market mixed, as winter wheat closed up but spring wheat and livestock ended lower. Part of the strength for corn and soybeans may have been a weather premium, as crop planting has started out fast but warm weather has been slow to develop...
Real GDP grew at a 2 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2026, slightly below the consensus expectation of 2.3 percent but above the 0.5 percent growth in Q4 2025. The GDP number matches the average annualized pace of growth since the peak back in late 2007, right before the Financial P...
Reflect for a moment on what you eat. There is a lot of advice out there in the ether about what you should eat, but really, what do you currently eat and how much? The good people at the USDA have some data for you, to help you answer that question. USDA says that we eat quite a bit of meat. L...
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.