Grain and oilseed markets have been all about the weather the past few days, and that has trumped weakness over the last couple of weeks caused by more concerns about what will finally happen in Greece and how that might spill over into other world markets. Those concerns again pushed the dollar sharply higher. Big-time fund liquidation of commodity positions has been the name of the game, and that liquidation dropped crude oil from $105 just a few weeks ago to just below $92 today. Gold and silver followed suit, as did financial markets. Grains and oilseed futures markets crashed as well, with soybean futures dropping a dollar from their highs and wheat and corn futures losing 50-60 cents. The 10 May USDA reports hastened the decline in...
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
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.