Soybeans Chinese crushers were avid buyers of spot beans last week, purchasing all cheap offers available for December and January. Their margins improved as CBOT soybean futures went lower and were certainly better on spot than any differed position (March onward), which encouraged that demand. Brazil Some cargoes were sold as December/January straddle, although availability was limited. A few were traded at +164/165SF CNF China from Brazil. There were also some Pacific Northwest (PNW) cargoes traded at +145SF for January. In addition, U.S. Gulf (USG) traded one cargo at 157SF, but there was less interest for this origin. All spot basis have risen significantly in the past three weeks. A month ago, PNW and Brazil were trading around 130...
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...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.