CME grain and soy futures struggled to find volume and price direction amid the continued lack of inputs from USDA and with little else to lead them. Trading volume today can best be described as awful. Prices moved slightly lower, mostly as a result of neglect, and remained range-bound during the day session with limited movement. Wheat stayed within a 7.5-8 cent trading range with just about all prices finishing slightly lower to break a five-day streak of higher closes. Corn was stuck in a 4-cent range that resulted in the spot March contract closing 1.75 cents lower with December down 1.5 cents. The soybean market traded in a range of 10 cents or less, but the day ended with spot March up a single penny and November barely changed with...
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.