The trade will be watching this Thursday’s release of USDA’s September WASDE report and how it differs from the August estimates. With so much money riding on the outcome, there are plenty of second-guessers issuing their own pre-report predictions. USDA itself feverishly analyzes its relative success or failure. It continues revising both its processes and its numbers. Speculators are going short, monetarily betting that the report will be bearish. Of course, what ultimately matters will be the final outcome. Looking at the September WASDE estimates just for production of corn, wheat and soybeans and contrasting them with the final numbers, there has been a bearish leaning over the past five years. In other words, final produc...
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.