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Barometer: Farmers less optimistic about financial future

AFinancial stress is taking its toll on farmers as seen in the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

Jim Mintert, director of Purdue’s Center for Commercial Ag, says farmers are less optimistic about their financial future.

“60 percent said the reason their operating debt was going up was an increase in input costs, which was mostly fertilizer,” he says. “20 percent said it was because of an increase in the size of the operation and 21 percent said it was because of unpaid operating date from previous years.”

He tells Brownfield the recent flooding didn’t have a big impact on the survey, because the number of farmers affected by the flooding in the survey was small. But, Mintert says reports of losses from flooding did create some uncertainty.

Despite continued financial stress, farmers did express more confidence in the future growth of U.S. ag exports, especially with China.

Mintert says nearly 80 percent of producers expressed confidence that a final trade agreement will favor the U.S.

But less than half of the producers said they didn’t think it was likely the trade dispute would be resolved by July 1.

“There’s a group of people out there that are pretty optimistic that this will work itself out and there’s another group of people that are very concerned that it will not work itself out,” he says. “So that produces a different mindset with respect to how you manage your business, how aggressive you are, the way you look at land purchases, and the way you look at equipment purchases.”

The latest barometer, a monthly survey of 400 U.S. ag producers, fell to 133 in March.

A rating below 100 is negative, while a rating above 100 indicates positive sentiment about the ag economy.

Audio: Jim Mintert, Purdue University