Soybean production in Brazil has been spilling over into Brazilian pasture land, forcing more confinement feeding of Brazilian beef. This corresponds with increased Brazilian beef exports so far this month compared to last year. Beef is up 15 percent in volume and 24 percent in value. Meanwhile, chicken is up 9.8 percent in volume and 3.8 percent in value, and pork is up 42 percent in volume and 28 percent in value. The Brazilian government is targeting dairy export promotion with a $2 million program mainly aimed at the Middle East: Algeria, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Iraq. The other target countries are Venezuela, Angola and China. Notable is that all but China are petroleum exporters.Traditionally, Brazilian grass-fe...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
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.