Merry day-after-Christmas! Corn and wheat futures were generally quiet in the market’s annual post-Christmas trading lull while soybean futures were sharply higher. Livestock futures were all higher as traders came away with a more bullish interpretation of the Cattle on Feed and Hogs and Pigs reports that were released on Friday. Crude oil futures (both WTI and Brent) rose more than $1/barrel in early week trading, pulling gasoline futures higher too. The S&P and Dow Jones indexes are both slightly lower as of this writing, sending the CBOE VIX index 3.74% higher to 10.27. The U.S. dollar index is essentially unchanged, but some traders note a more bearish outlook is warranted as the latest tax reform’s package could move...
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...
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.