After an approximate five-month delay, Congress has approved a $19 billion disaster bill that would cover in addition to other relief efforts, certain agricultural losses. The House passed the bill 354-58 yesterday (it failed the week before by one vote) and the Senate had passed it by a vote of 85-8 the previous week. The legislation provides $3.005 billion for crop and livestock losses due to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, wildfires and snowstorms during 2018 and 2019. Once funds are allocated for California, high Plains livestock, southern poultry and other crops, it is not clear how much will go to the corn sector (a great deal of which will be for corn in storage that was flooded). Note that corn was far cheaper at the ti...
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.