Author: Michael Ferrari, PhD
VP, Applied Technology & Research
Readers of this column should no doubt be aware of our bias towards the importance of India with respect to the amount of physical sugar that is available to the world market at any given time.  We have stated numerous times that the sub-optimal pattern with respect to [...]

Author: Michael Ferrari, PhD
VP, Applied Technology & Research
Wheat continues to dominate news in the grains/oilseeds space – this time the focus is Australia.  Eastern Australia has benefited from a favorable patter over the last several months, but the western wheat belt has been stuck in a persistent dry pattern.  In a Bloomberg article today, the [...]

Author: Michael Ferrari, PhD
VP, Applied Technology & Research
This article in Bloomberg Business Week today is in line with how we are viewing the current US corn & soybean crops at Weather Trends.  No doubt, the 2010 crop for both commodities will still produce good numbers for the 18 major growing states.  However, we think both [...]

Author: Michael Ferrari, PhD
VP, Applied Technology & Research
Once again, we make the case for space-based research combined with advance weather outlooks as a simple yet powerful suite of tools for early identification of crop problems in key agricultural producing regions.  As an example, the map below is an indicator of vegetation health as derived via [...]

Author: Michael Ferrari, PhD
VP, Applied Technology & Research
The seasonal progress for monsoon rains (week ending August 4) is shown below, via the Indian Met Dept.  Most analyst discussions in the sugar market over the last week have focused on a better pattern emerging, but for sugar growing regions, this is only half of the picture.  [...]

From Monday’s (02 Aug) NASS report:
week ending Aug 1
Corn (18 major states):  93% silking vs. 74% LY & 86% 5ya; 31% dough vs. 13% LY & 24% 5ya. 
Soybeans (18 major states):  86% blooming vs. 74% LY % 83% 5ya; 53% pod-set vs. 33% LY % 48% 5ya.