This week’s WASDE report from USDA was considered slightly bullish for prices, although that certainly wasn’t apparent by the market’s action during the past few trading sessions. U.S. corn and soybean ending supplies were reduced. World demand remains very strong, but crop problems stretching from the Black Sea to Australia are causing world production to slip. The one aspect of the report that has raised questions is the U.S. winter wheat production estimate, and June can be a difficult month for assessing that crop. Many of the variables at play will be resolved by the time of the July report, however. Chief among these is the “harvested” acreage number, which is critical to any final production estimate. T...
Key Takeaways: The U.S. herd is stabilizing, but growth remains modest. Total goat inventory rose 1 percent in 2026, while meat-goat numbers increased 2 percent, which is not enough to materially reduce import dependence. Domestic slaughter is rising from a low base. Commercial slaughter incre...
What You Need to Know: U.S. fertilizer production is highly concentrated, but concentration alone does not establish that producers are operating as a cartel. Imports introduce competition unevenly: they supply nearly all U.S. potash consumption but play much smaller roles in domestic ammonia...
Given yesterday’s headlines, today’s market action may not be what many expected. The dollar is little changed, crude oil is pulling back and stocks are trading higher. Crude may be the biggest piece of today’s reversal. Saudi Arabia is offering additional crude to Asian buyer...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.