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Ag Economy Barometer Survey: More than half of farmers say they plan to use farm aid to pay off debt

An ag economist says more than half of U.S. farmers surveyed for the last Ag Economy Barometer say they plan to use ad-hoc assistance to pay off debt. 

Purdue University’s Jim Mintert tells Brownfield, “I think they still recognize this is a challenging financial environment, so they want to make sure they’re going to enter next year with a stronger balance sheet and as strong of a financial position as possible.”

He says financial pressure from the ongoing tariff situation has changed farmer’s perception of the ag economy.

“Roughly six out of ten think it’s going to strengthen the economy in the long run,” he says. “That’s lower than what we were picking up last spring. Both in April and May, that was about 70 percent. We’ve lost a little bit of that confidence that we had back in April and May that that this would play out well.”

Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins said earlier this week an announcement on farmer assistance is expected next week. 

The Barometer is a nationwide measure of the health of the U.S. agricultural economy and surveys 400 agricultural producers on economic sentiment each month.

AUDIO: Jim Mintert, Purdue’s Center for Commercial Agriculture