USDA’s dairy product price outlook was increased due to a decreasing cow herd. The forecast for the average number of milk cows in 2022 has been lowered by 15,000 head, to 9.405 million. However, the projected average yield per cow in 2022 was adjusted slightly higher, at 24,075 pounds per year. The net impact is a reduction of milk produced for the year of 300 million pounds – down about 0.1 percent – to 226.5 billion pounds. Though better than last year at the same time, the feed cost of production has steadily risen this year. The milk to feed ratio – which is the amount of feed equivalent to the all-milk price (on a pound per pound basis) has steadily dropped this year, fueling the cow culling...
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
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.