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Ag Economy Barometer shows modest improvement, but concerns linger

Farmer sentiment has improved modestly month-over-month but is still well below year-ago levels, according to the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

Jim Mintert with Purdue’s Center for Commercial Agriculture tells Brownfield it was a fairly small move. “People did become just a little bit more optimistic about the future,” he says.  “The future expectation index was up about 7 points compared to a month earlier.” 

He says more and more respondents are expressing concern about crop and livestock prices.  “This month, 28% of the people chose that as one of their top concerns,” he says. “This time last year, only 18% said that. So, you can kind of see how people are really getting worried about a potential cost price squeeze with these relatively high break evens and the weakness we’re seeing in commodity prices.” 

The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer is a nationwide measure of the health of the U.S. agricultural economy and surveys 400 agricultural producers on economic sentiment each month.

AUDIO: Jim Mintert, Purdue University/CME Ag Economy Barometer