Livestock Live Hog Inventories Surpass Pre-African Swine Fever Levels Last week, China’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), Ma Youxiang, announced the complete recovery of the country’s sow and live hog stocks. Through the end of July, China’s combined sow inventory now stands at 101.6 percent of the total at the end of 2017, while the live hog stock has recovered to 100.2 percent of the total at the end of that year. On a numbers basis, the total live hog inventory at the end of 2017 amounted to roughly 400 million head, so the current total through July would stand at 400.8 million. By comparison, the total sow stock stood at about 43 million at the end of 2017, so that would mean through the end...
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.