News

Ag barometer holds steady despite delayed farm bill, trade concerns

Producer sentiment held steady in November with farmers remaining relatively optimistic about the future of the ag economy.

Jim Mintert is the director of the Center for Commercial Ag at Purdue University.

“With respect to their long-run view on farmland values, that rebounded pretty dramatically this month,” he says. “We saw an improvement in the index that we use to measure people’s responsiveness or interest in making large farm investments. So overall people are a little more positive than they were back in September.”

The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer fell from 136 to 134 in November.

But, Mintert says farmers are concerned Congress hasn’t passed a new farm bill yet.

“Seventy-five percent of the farmers in our survey said they were either somewhat concerned or very concerned about the lack of a new farm bill being in place, and 33 percent of those farmers said they were very concerned,” he says.

Farmers were surveyed before the U.S. and China announced a 90-day trade truce. Mintert says producer sentiment will likely improve if negotiations result in China buying more U.S. soybeans.

The ag economy barometer is a monthly national survey of 400 U.S. ag producers. Mintert says it is not the same producers each month, but characteristics of the survey are constant. Fifty-three percent of farmers surveyed grow corn or soybeans, 19 percent raise beef, 14 percent grow wheat, six percent raise hogs, 5 percent are dairy farmers, and 3 percent grow cotton.

Audio: Jim Mintert, Purdue University