Macro markets melted down again on Monday as rising interest rates and inflation cause a sustained effort to reprice assets and their relative risk. Its important to note that there was not substantially bearish news for major ag commodities over the weekend, but it’s hard for ag markets to swim against the broader financial market currents on days like today. Indeed, the weekend’s hot, dry weather in the U.S. southern Plains and increasing drought and heat in western Europe should have been fundamentally supportive, as should Brazil’s drought and the massive heatwave affecting India. Still, it was a “risk off” day at the CBOT and funds were net sellers in the soy complex and corn and eventually decided to dump...
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.