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Producers are less optimistic in farms’ financial performance

Farmers are less optimistic in their operations’ financial position, according to the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

Jim Mintert is the director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.

“People are concerned about the cost of doing business whether it’s machinery parts, new machinery costs, and basic ag inputs like fertilizer, seed, etc.,” he says.  

The Farm Financial Performance Index fell 13 points to a reading of 86. Mintert says this month’s reading leaves the index about 17 percent lower than this time last year.  

He tells Brownfield, “when farmers think about their farms’ financial performance, they’re starting to think about how expensive it is to do business now versus what they were used to for a number of years.”

The latest Ag Economy Barometer report says shipping conditions throughout the Mississippi river valley have impacted exports and the related weakening of corn and soybean basis levels could be contributing to financial performance concerns.