Wrong-Way Trade Policy Trade policy remains a wreck with countries concurrently practicing their own protectionism while complaining vehemently about that employed by their trading partners. Loser ideas this week include the Indian government signaling it may prohibit exports of non-basmati rice, South Korea stopping sales of U.S. origin rice based on an unconfirmed finding of arsenic by a prejudicial private consumer group, and Russia stopping biotech corn imports on the basis of a biased French study.The U.S. poultry industry is understandably demanding the removal of Canada's import barriers as a condition for joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but Canada should lock arms with Australia in making a similar demand that the United S...
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.