The awaited reports on 2018 quarterly stocks and winter wheat acreage along with the January 2018 WASDE have come and gone. Given the broad spectrum of data presented, they have a bit of history in terms of generating market-moving surprises. On balance, though, last Friday’s release seemed to be about as unsurprising as such a wide array of data on a variety of subjects could be. This is not to say that the reports turned out to be exactly what the market expected. USDA’s estimated total winter wheat planted acreage was 32.6 million acres, lower than last year’s final number. While that was only 100,000 acres less, the trade’s average guess was more than 1 million acres below USDA’s estimate. In the wheat cla...
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...
From WPI Consulting
Weighing in on strategic realignment
WPI’s team was retained by the governing board of a U.S. industry organization to review a decision, reached by vote, to invest significant assets into the development and management of an export trading company. WPI’s team conducted a formal review of this decision and concluded that the current level of market saturation would limit the benefits of the investment. Based on WPI’s analysis and recommended actions, the board subsequently reversed its decision and undertook a strategic planning effort to identify more impactful investments. On behalf of numerous clients, WPI has not only assisted in identifying strategic paths but also advised their implementation.