Senators Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) have been preparing an amendment to the Senate Ag Committee's farm bill that would cap the amount of premium subsidy a farmer could receive. As we previously reported (see WPI 14 May), budget-minded think tanks and taxpayer groups sent a letter to House members on Monday, recommending deeper cuts in the Senate Ag Committee's farm bill. While that letter hit House offices yesterday, a group of 12 commodity and farm organizations -- including corn, cotton, soybeans, wheat and the American Farm Bureau Federation -- sent a letter to House Ag Committee members in support of "maintaining a strong, efficient, effective, and affordable crop insurance program." According to the letter:...
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...
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.