News

Farmer concerns shifting to trade policy

Producers are expressing more concern about the current trade environment in the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

Professor emeritus Jim Mintert tells Brownfield, “People were much more worried about interest rate policy than trade policy, in fact that was true all the way through 2022 and 2023. After the election that flipped.”

He says farmers in this month’s survey anticipate additional compensation for a downturn in ag exports.

“There is this underlying expectation on a large portion of producers that if farm incomes are hurt by what happens in the trade arena, that there’ll be some compensation coming from USDA,” he says. “That remains to be seen if that’s really going to be true, but there’s certainly an expectation for that.”

The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy 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