The chatter surrounding the markets today was interesting. The bullish stories discussed the shrinking wheat and feed grain crops in the EU, and that included the near panic buying by EU feed manufacturers. USDA pegged the EU wheat crop at 145 MMT in its recent report, but some are now talking about a sub-140 MMT crop. Other bullish talk was (again) about reduced yield expectations in Russia coupled with the potential for quality losses. Perhaps Russia’s explosion of cheap wheat exports is about to take at least a temporary hiatus. Canada’s crop might also be getting smaller. The map below shows the deviation from normal precipitation across western Canada for the 90 days that ended 16 July. It does take some rain to make grain,...
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.