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Farmer sentiment drops to its lowest level since 2016

A Purdue University ag economist says farmer sentiment has reached it’s lowest level since 2016 in the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer. 

He says the decline can be attributed to increased concerns about lower crop and livestock prices.

“To put that in perspective, about one third 34% of the people the survey chose high input costs as their top concern,” he says. “But this month that was virtually matched by the percentage of people who chose low crop and livestock prices as their biggest concern.”

Mintert tells Brownfield farmers are worried about the ag economy, similar to what they experienced nearly a decade ago. 

“The 2015 and 2016 era was an era when we were entering kind of a longer-term downturn in US agriculture, especially in in the corn and soybean economy,” he says. “Sentiment is back to the levels and actually a little bit below the levels we were observed during that time frame.”

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.

Image provided by Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture.

AUDIO: Jim Mintert, Purdue University