General Comments Grain and soy futures continued the same slow, grinding pattern of trade that has been around all week as traders brace for Friday's WASDE. Trading volume remains quite low. Corn prices are slowly leaking lower. On continuous charts, one must go back to late August of 2010 to find a daily close that was lower than today's December corn close of $4.2125. On the other hand, soybean futures prices grudgingly edged higher by about 4 cents. CME's SRW wheat futures prices also eased lower by 3-4 cents. KC HRW prices fell 5-7 cents as more rains fell over the central Plains where soil moisture is recharging after two-plus years of drought. Generally, the soil moisture situation for the newly seeded U.S. HRW is the best seen i...
As predicted, the Federal Reserve held rates steady at the last meeting before the midterm elections, likely in part because of the election (see WPI 19 October and 22 September). The decision comes at the tail end of a midterm election cycle that has been marked by the two parties campaigning...
Key Takeaways: WPI’s new EU rapeseed crushing margin models point to weaker processing returns over the next four months due to higher rapeseed procurement costs and weaker product values. Statistical forecasts call for German crushing margins to decline from €181/MT to €...
Key Takeaways: The tariff burden rose sharply in 2025 and 2026: the effective rate on imports in HTS Chapters 1–24 increased from 1.53 percent in 2024 to 6.11 percent in 2025, before averaging 5.68 percent in January–August 2026. Headline rates tell only part of the story: exemptio...
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.