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Farmers say it’s not a good time for machinery, new construction investments

Producers continue to indicate now is not a good time to make large investments in their farming operations, according to the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

Purdue’s Jim Mintert tells Brownfield “overwhelmingly they’re telling us it’s the increase in prices that they’re observing for farm machinery and new construction. This month, 46 percent of people in the survey said that was the reason. That’s compared to 49 percent in August and 44 percent back in July, so that’s pretty consistent. But, we did pick up a little more concern about interest rates. If you look at the July responses, only 14 percent of the people were concerned about rising interest rates in terms of that making it a bad time to make those large investments. That percentage rose to 18 percent in August and this month it was up to 21 percent. People are becoming more concerned about that and I suspect that will probably continue into the next several surveys as well.”

The Farm Capital Investment Index declined eight points to a record low of 31 in September. A year ago, the index was at 43 and two years ago it was at 73, according to Mintert.

Audio: Jim Mintert