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Barometer: Farmers are concerned about the impact of U.S. interest rate policy

The latest Ag Economy Barometer asked farmers to identify top policies or programs that will impact their operation in the next five years.

Jim Mintert with Purdue University says one-third of crop producers surveyed are concerned about interest rate policy.

“People are very worried about what is taking place with respect to Federal Reserve policy and the impact that’s going to have on their cost of doing business and their cost of borrowing capital to put crop in the ground, to finance livestock, to finance machinery, and to finance farmland,” he says.  

He tells Brownfield,” the policy area we thought would be number one came in number two and that was crop insurance. That was chosen by just a little over one fourth of the people in the survey.”

Environmental policy was chosen by 16 percent of crop producers followed by conservation policy at 11 percent and climate policy at 10 percent.

Mintert says policy is top of mind for many producers as Congress prepares for debate on a new farm bill in 2023  

“The interesting thing was that people are concerned about what’s going on with the macroeconomic policy and that’s another factor that’s contributing to unease among producers,” he says.

When asked how effective the current ARC-County and Price Loss Coverage programs are at providing a financial safety net, more than 70 percent said the two programs are somewhat or very effective. When asked how effective crop insurance is at providing a safety net, 84 percent of producers rated it somewhat or very effective.

The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer is a monthly national survey of 400 U.S. agricultural producers.

Audio: Jim Mintert

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