News

Ag Economy Barometer declines as farmers face low commodity prices

Low commodity prices weakened farmer sentiment, according to the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

Jim Mintert, director of Purdue’s Center for Commercial Agriculture, says corn and soybean prices fell as crop conditions improved and the USDA released its crop production estimates.

“Our August data was collected after the August crop report, so it did capture a lot of the impact of the decline in prices,” he says. “That was really probably the big story and I think it’s going to be interesting to see what happens in September as commodity prices have continued to weaken.”

The latest barometer fell 29 points to 124 in August. The Index of Current Conditions fell 19 points and the Index of Future Expectations fell 35 points.

He says the trade dispute with China also continues to negatively impact producer sentiment.

“Seventy-one percent of producers surveyed said they thought it was unlikely to be resolved quickly,” he says.

But, more than 70 percent of farmers surveyed believe a trade agreement with China would benefit U.S. agriculture.

Mintert says the USDA’s upcoming crop production report will likely impact producer sentiment in the next Ag Economy Barometer survey. 

“There’s a lot of stress, a lot of uncertainty with respect to what yields are going to be,” he says. “Of course, we’re going to get some new information from USDA next week on yields and that’s probably going to have an impact on people’s attitudes as well.”

The survey of 400 agricultural producers across the U.S. was conducted August 12 through August 20.