Will farmers will stick to the planted acres reflected in the March planting intentions report or will they make significant changes based on weather or markets? This is one of the questions analysts must ask during the spring planting season. I have expressed that the unabated rally in the soybean market would lead to fewer corn and spring wheat acres and more soybean acres. Some informal producer surveys conducted this week indicate that my ideas of changing acreage are probably wrong. Let me say again these are very informal surveys, but they do cover most of the Northern Plains and western Corn Belt.The question posed to farmers was: How has your planted acreage ideas changed from what you intended to plant? The overwhelming majority...
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
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.