If U.S. wheat futures prices and cash values are higher during the forthcoming wheat year because of the small domestic crop, will world wheat traders and users care? Will they even notice?WPI’s Mike Krueger has rightfully pointed out that prospects for the already historically small 2017 U.S. winter wheat harvest have been threatened by lengthy drought conditions over the southern half of the Plains HRW as well as a series of freeze events that have punctuated otherwise unusual winter warmth. The latest freeze occurred well after HRW had started to green up and grow again, and this may have caused some damage to an already challenged crop. Drought conditions may improve if the rains indicated by weather models next week over much of Texas,...
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...
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.