Reports of very high soybean yields across the Midwest continue. However, it also is clear that many farmers saw substantial losses this year because of a problem that is worse when there is a cool, wet spring. Brazil Agency Forecasts Larger Soy Crop in 2017 Brazil’s crop supply agency Conab today forecast that country’s 2017 soybean production will increase to 101.9-104 MMT with better weather versus the drought-impacted 2016 crop of 95.4 MMT. It expects the planted area planted to rise 0.6-2.7 percent and yields to be 6.1 percent higher.Most analysts are predicting that the expansion in soybean plantings will be less than in past years because of the poor profitability outlook for that crop and greater incentives to plant corn. The high...
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.