USDA yesterday officially declared that the long bull market in corn is finished. It did so by increasing old crop supplies by 50 million bushels and deciding on 10 May that the U.S. corn yield will set an all-time record of 166 bushels per acre. The path to this declaration was established back in the April WASDE, when USDA did not reduce old crop ending supplies despite a smaller-than-expected 1 March quarter corn stocks number. That number can't be verified until the 1 June quarterly stocks number is released on 29 June. There will be too much water under the bridge by that point for the 1 June number to make much difference unless weather between now and then has changed and the market believes the 166-bushel yield projection is threa...
Key Takeaways: President Trump announced $8 billion in additional agricultural assistance through the Harvest Fuel Relief Program, as USDA projects farm fuel and oil expenses will increase 28.8 percent in 2026. The package follows $12 billion in earlier relief, while government farm payments w...
Key Takeaways: A student group from the University of Chicago is protesting to bring back onion futures trading. Trading in onion futures was banned in 1958 following a spectacular bout of market manipulation that resulted in a corner of the physical market. The ban on onion futures led t...
Beef packer margins deteriorated to $141/head last week, down $55 from the prior week as fed cattle prices strengthened while the Choice cutout remained nearly unchanged. The cutout held near $373/cwt while fed cattle prices climbed $4/cwt to $224/cwt, narrowing processor profits. Despite the d...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.