Soymeal was the upside leader (and one of the few markets to finish higher) on Tuesday as a combination of tight spot supplies and strong feed demand bolster physical prices. Soymeal futures surged to new contract highs on heavy volume, which helped pull the soybean market into the green as well. Past that, the CBOT was almost exclusively lower with wheat and corn continuing their respective selloffs. Even the livestock markets, which face a bullish supply outlook, turned tail and posted large losses for the day. Weakness in cattle futures was related to weakness in the beef cutout while the hog market selloff was related to a slowdown in slaughter levels and suspected weakness in packer demand. Funds were net sellers in corn and wheat for...
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.