With the USDA’s annual Ag Outlook forum happening at the end of this month and planting season a little more than four weeks away for parts of the U.S., the industry is turning its attention to the acreage outlook for 2025. This year offers significant differences from recent conditions that will significantly impact farmers’ planting decisions. Chief among these are the perceived risks of planting soybeans heading into a year in which a trade war could erupt and a historically weak soy/corn ratio. WPI offers our thoughts on these factors as well as the latest forecasts from our models. Political Concerns Farmers facing the decision to plant soybeans face new political uncertainties in 2025, primarily from the threat of a...
Corn Argentina Argentina’s corn harvest progress has fallen further behind the normal pace, with the latest estimate showing more than 15 percentage points of delay versus previous years. Excessive grain moisture and poor road conditions continue to limit field access and slow harvest act...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.