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Survey: farmers more optimistic about farmland values in the next year 

Farmers are slightly more optimistic farmland values will improve in the next 12 months, according to the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

Jim Mintert, the survey’s principal investigator, says the short-term farmland value expectations index increased for the first time in five months.

“Some of that was probably an improved perspective with respect to their own farm’s outlook, but I think part of it probably tied back to interest rates,” he says. “If you think about something that would be negative for a capital asset like farmland, rising interest rates is clearly a negative factor. And if you think you’re a little less likely to see as aggressive of rate increases you maybe were expecting previously, that could make you just feel a little bit better about what might take place with respect to farmland.”

That index rose 10 points in the latest survey to a reading of 123.

He tells Brownfield the rise in sentiment was slightly unexpected.

“I didn’t think that would have that much impact but we’ll see whether or not that carries forward and what the change in commodity price outlook has on farmland expectations,” he says.

The long-term farmland index held steady at a reading of 142. Mintert says the index is typically more stable because it explores sentiment on farmland values over the next five years.

“It doesn’t bounce around nearly as much as that short-term perspective,” he says.

The percentage of respondents expecting values to decline in the year ahead fell to 14 percent this month. The percentage of farmers who expect values to rise in the upcoming year rose from 33 to 37 percent this month.

The Ag Economy Barometer is a monthly national survey of 400 U.S. agricultural producers.