Milling Wheat World wheat markets are steady/higher this week after futures markets rallied despite the September WASDE’s addition of 4 MMT to world ending stocks. There was a sense that wheat futures were oversold heading into the report and a round of short covering and end-user buying occurred. Northern Hemisphere supplies are now featuring varied quality and Russia’s export program is being thwarted by its export tax program. The WASDE suggests there is no overall shortage, but supplies will be tighter on the margin until the Southern Hemisphere (e.g., Australia) crop becomes available. The UK wheat harvest is finished with variable results all around, from yields to quality specs. Much of the crop still has hi...
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.