Meatless USDA Says Livestock "Wastes Resources" As if having a secretary who seemlingly plans to jawbone the markets into believing that the July WASDE still assures a record corn crop isn't unsettling enough to livestock produers, then USDA's recent intra-Department newsletter might be. The "Greening Headquarters Update" stated that "one simple way to reduce our environmental impace while dining at our cafeteria is to participate in the 'Meatless Monday' initiative." The invitation to meatlessness was part of an effort to combat global warming, which the USDA memo claims is generated in large part by livestock production.It must just be coincidence then that we have the smallest cattle herd in 60 years, chicken and turkey flocks down,...
What You Need to Know Today: Cattle futures extended their sharp selloff Friday as weakening cash cattle prices, deteriorating feedlot profitability, and reduced packer demand continued to weigh on the market. The inability of futures to sustain a rally following last week's bullish Cattle on...
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 €...
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.