Although it is unknown at this point who will be the new USDA secretary, another cabinet nominee is adding to the nervousness felt by some aggies. Now in the past few days, the concern has spread about the influence of an unofficial Trump advisor and RFS critic.As an aside, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease was detected in the U.S. on this day in 2003. That discovery will forever be remembered as the “cow who sold Christmas.” Today the sector has expanded and, in fact, peaked in herd size, and it is starting on the downward side of a cattle cycle.In terms of more current affairs, Washington is in the midst of the Trump administration transition, and many aggies are getting the jitters over the pace. 24 December is th...
What You Need to Know Today: A third U.S. border crossing (Columbus, New Mexico) has reopened to Mexican cattle imports following nearly two years of restrictions related to New World screwworm. The reopening could gradually improve feeder cattle availability, although more than 60 confi...
Yesterday, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released a new report of negotiated cash purchases of cattle under the mandatory price report. The report included Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. The goal of the report was to solve the confidentiality issues e...
Key Takeaways: U.S. soybean crushing began in 1911 and saw its most rapid expansion during the 1930s amid the broader agricultural and technology revolutions of the time. After peaking in the early 2000s, the soybean crushing industry went through a downturn as poor crush margins forced...
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.