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Farmer sentiment soars

Farmer sentiment is up as harvest winds down in many Midwestern states, according to the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

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

“A lot of farmers were really uncertain about what was going to happen in terms of yield and production levels, especially here in the central and eastern part of the corn belt but yields turned out better than expected,” he says. “I realize there are parts of the corn belt, especially the northern part of the corn belt, where we still have a significant amount of the crop out there and conditions are looking challenging but in the aggregate people were feeling a little bit better about how things turned out this fall.”

The Ag Economy Barometer climbed to 153, one of the highest readings since the barometer began in 2015.

He says farmers also indicated they are confident the trade dispute with China will be resolved soon.

“Fifty-seven percent said that they thought it would be settled soon and that’s the highest percentage we’ve ever gotten since we’ve been collecting data,” he says.

The Ag Economy Barometer showed that farmers think it’s a good time to make large farm investments and are more optimistic about farmland values.

The monthly survey of 400 US farmers was conducted November 11-15. Most responses were received before the USDA announced the second round of Market Facilitation Program payments.