Beef and Beans With a surfeit of cheap soybeans (thanks to Chinese tariffs) coinciding with record cattle on feed inventories and strong domestic/export beef demand, there is an opportunity for some whole bean substitution in feed rations as a supplement for both protein and energy. The inclusion rate is limited to around 5 percent at a maximum because of oil content and other nutritional issues. Based on the latest WASDE, this year’s beef production is projected to total approximately 27.09 billion pounds, which would equate to a maximum fed cattle live weight total of 44.8 billion pounds. This implies an upper limit of 9-10 million bushels for soybean feed use. There is also the possibility that more soymeal may be fed in the form...
What You Need to Know Today: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva secured reelection on Sunday, defeating right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro despite trailing in the first round of voting. The surprise victory triggered a sharp selloff in Brazilian financial market...
The 2026 midterm elections are a week from tomorrow, but early voting has been taking place for weeks. At stake is control of Congress, including the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are contested, and the Senate, where approximately one-third of the seats are up for election. Farm...
Key Takeaways: Total U.S. crop acres (excluding hay) are forecast to expand fractionally this year due to greater oilseed crop and winter wheat plantings. One of the key drivers of this year’s crop outlook is input costs, and crops with a lower cost profile have an advantage in producers...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.