China continues to politically bludgeon Australia’s agriculture, the latest involving the suspension of beef imports from several processing plants Down Under. The pretense is COVID or antibiotic residues or no excuse at all. Meanwhile, China’s domestic demand for beef has been climbing steadily, rising at nearly 5 percent per year over the past decade. While pork production is recovering from the damage done by ASF, cattle are far more land intensive, a resource in short supply in China. Beef prices have been rising and are likely to continue doing so as a combination of limited global supplies, increased demand, and the influence of the cattle cycle create a perfect storm of demand exceeding supply. Beijing does not like reli...
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.