The message is that agricultural lenders are more than a little worried about the rapid and steep decline in prices as well as the resulting destruction to their clients' balance sheets and cash flow.The Big Iron Farm Show, one of the largest in the country, was held in Fargo this week. I participated in a panel discussion and spoke at an evening farm meeting that had more than 200 farmers in attendance. Two agricultural lenders from Farm Credit Services spoke just ahead of me. Their topic was "Financial Structure and Strategies for Lean Times." For me, it was deja vu all over again. I thought I was back in the 1980s.The message is that agricultural lenders are more than a little worried about the rapid and steep decline in prices and the r...
The Olympic marmot (Marmota olympus) is a rodent in the squirrel family, Sciuridae. It occurs only in the U.S. state of Washington, at the middle elevations of the Olympic Peninsula. The closest relatives of this species are the hoary marmot and the Vancouver Island marmot. In 2009, it was decl...
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.