These rating numbers have become a trading game. The problem is they are simply not reliable indicators of crop yields and were really never intended to be used as such.Several states released their monthly winter wheat crop ratings last Monday. The first of the weekly national crop progress reports won't start until the first Monday in April. WPI has always expressed caution on how these weekly crop ratings should be viewed. Like so many other reports in the marketplace, these seem to have taken on a life of their own. Analysts are now trying to use the weekly ratings changes to forecast final crop yields from week to week, and the market of course anxiously awaits the numbers every Monday afternoon. These rating numbers have become a trad...
What You Need to Know Today: The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at 3.75 to 4.0 percent Wednesday, with two officials dissenting in favor of a 25-basis-point increase. The Fed upgraded its assessment of economic growth from "solid" to "strong" but adopted a more patient approa...
Russian Grain Markets: 19–23 October 2026 The Russian grain market continued its recovery during the week, although prices remained volatile across regions. Wheat was notably bullish, while feed barley and corn were slower to appreciate, primarily because of weaker export demand amid logi...
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.