In the May WASDE (released last week), USDA projected growth in feed use of corn based on supplies and prices, but it also increased animal units. While trade uncertainties will no doubt affect the U.S. livestock and meat industry the longer they continue, the dye is cast to some extent for expanded meat production because of the structure of animal production cycles and the size of current herds and flocks. The birth-to-slaughter schedule (depicted in the green-hued bars in the chart below) ranges from six weeks for broilers to 18-24 months for cattle. When factoring the timeline of breeding herds and flocks (depicted in blue), however, the total production time is at least six months for broilers (longer considering the industry relies o...
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.