The bottom line is that farm income has lifted up farm assets and equity. As expected, farm debt to equity and debt to assets are down.USDA's Economic Research Service recently released its farm financial analysis that includes assets, debt and equity forecast to the end of 2013. It's a timely report given the drop in crop prices, the unclear status of the farm bill and its support programs as well as the uncertainty of the renewable fuel standard (RFS) going forward into 2014 and 2015. The biggest factors are net farm income and debt levels.Income: Net farm income is forecast to be $131 billion in 2013, up 15.1 percent from 2012's estimate of $113.8 billion. After adjusting for inflation, 2013's net farm income is expected to be the highes...
As predicted, the Federal Reserve held rates steady at the last meeting before the midterm elections, likely in part because of the election (see WPI 19 October and 22 September). The decision comes at the tail end of a midterm election cycle that has been marked by the two parties campaigning...
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.