In 1988 a La Nina weather pattern brought a crushing drought to the Corn Belt. This year started off with a moderate La Nina pattern, which generated some initial concern, but that pattern has largely dissipated. As a matter of fact, the recent transition in weather towards a neutral-to-El-Nino pattern is creating much more favorable planting conditions than has prevailed for the past few years. The threat of spring flooding across the northern Corn Belt is reduced because the snowpack has already melted. This season should allow planting to occur within very favorable soils. Consequently, if corn acreage increases and the jet steam allows a consistent pattern of spring rains to gently flow across the Corn Belt, then corn futures could ex...
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...
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...
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.