News

Survey: farmers say crop insurance is a top farm bill priority

Nearly half of the farmers surveyed in the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Survey say the crop insurance title is the most important aspect of a new farm bill to their operations.

Jim Mintert, the survey’s principal investigator, tells Brownfield, “48 percent (of farmers surveyed) this month chose crop insurance. That was up compared to last month, which was 40 percent. The second highest chosen title was the commodity program. That was down a little bit this month which surprised me a little bit. It was at 25 percent versus 31 percent last month.”  

In a follow-up question, corn and soybean growers were asked what change they expect to see to Price Loss Coverage reference prices in a new farm bill.

“Forty-five percent of the people in the survey said they thought the corn and soybean reference prices for PLC would be raised in the upcoming farm bill. That could be a bit of a challenge in terms of the budget. We’ll see how that plays out and we’ll probably continue to ask that question a little bit here over the course of the summer and see how people’s attitudes and perspectives might change,” he says. “But that does suggest people are kind of expecting to see an improvement in the farm safety net coming out of the PLC program.”

Farmers are slightly less optimistic a farm bill will be passed this year, with 33 percent of survey respondents saying it is somewhat likely compared to 40 percent last month.  

Audio: Jim Mintert