06/23/26 Afternoon CommStock Report – My Ideas of Transparency

Transparency is a trait displayed in governance and by administrations which characterizes it. The president often sets the tone that others follow. The subject of transparency comes up when talking about USDA, the Fed and the Swamp. Is our USDA too transparent? Some think so. Others think not enough. USDA often goes into great detail about how they arrive at conclusions when offering information that they release to the public in addition to the information itself. Some think that they should keep that to themselves. There is an argument to be made on both sides. Sometimes their processes get in the way. The trade often looks at WASDE reports for example through the lens of what it thinks the USDA will say rather than what the crop actually is. USDA follows a roadmap of processes to its conclusions. They appear to think the transparency of these processes adds credibility to its conclusions. There are tomes when the opposite is true.   As a general observation, farmers’ opinions on USDA reports are increasingly characterized by skepticism and distrust. Producers frequently point to unexpected misses in acreage and yield estimates that trigger sudden, dramatic drops in commodity prices. As noted, I have…