In advance of USDA’s winter wheat acreage report on Friday, WPI has prepared early forecasts of 2018/19 crop planted area for the U.S. Given current market dynamics, it comes as no surprise that our research finds corn acres will increase at the expense of soybeans. Wheat area will increase slightly and take some area formerly occupied by soybeans, while cotton and barley area will decrease. WPI’s methodology used seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) models to estimate each crop’s acreage while accounting for relationships between each crop (e.g., tradeoffs between corn and soybean area). Variables included in the model were harvest contract futures prices, cash prices for each crop, the ratio of various crop prices...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.