China’s National Bureau of Statistics reports that pork production increased 4.6 percent in 2023 to 57.94 MMT. This makes the fourth consecutive year of production increases since the trough of 2019 at the height of the African Swine Fever outbreak. Over 80 percent of soybeans in China are processed into meal as feed ration, mostly for hogs. However, the soybean consumption data and pork production do not evenly align. The government has been discouraging farmers from feeding soybean meal, despite it providing more optimal protein in the ration. Yet hog slaughter was up 3.8 percent last year to 726.62 million hogs, implying some productivity gain despite the government’s discouragement of using soybean meal. It should als...
Fabiana is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, native to dry slopes in western South America.[1] They are evergreen shrubs or subshrubs,[1] with needle-like leaves and profuse tiny tubular flowers in summer. The common name is false heath because the leaves superficially resem...
The magpie goose (Anseranas semipalmata) is the sole living representative species of the family Anseranatidae. This waterbird is found in northern Australia and southern New Guinea.[2] The species is not truly migratory but it sometimes travels large distances to find food and water, especiall...
The common ostrich (Struthio camelus), or simply ostrich, is a species of flightless bird native to certain areas of Africa (and historically, Arabia) and is the largest living species of bird. The common ostrich is one of two extant species of ostriches, the only living members of the genus St...
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.