One of the obvious facts about ethanol is that it is abundant in the Midwest Corn Belt. In fact, from the beginning of the ethanol mandate through to 2009, a total of 97 percent of all ethanol production in the U.S. was in the Midwest. Transportation and distribution issues dominated the early years of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which mandates ethanol usage. Part of the mandate was met by imports during that same period. This was especially the case in 2006, when the ethanol mandate was first in place, because imports were cheaper on the U.S. East Coast -- partly due to storage facilities and the need to bring in blend stock fuel and ethanol separately. Imports jumped that year from 136 million gallons in 2005 to 729 million gallo...
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.