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Farmer sentiment up ahead of the U.S. presidential election

An ag economist says farmers are expressing optimism that economic conditions will improve.

Jim Mintert with Purdue’s Center for Commerical Ag tells Brownfield the latest Ag Economy Barometer rose 27 points from last month.

“They became more optimistic about their financial conditions, particularly when we asked them to look ahead a year,” he says. “The optimism that showed up wasn’t just on one or two questions, it was fairly broad based as we looked at the entire survey.”

He says he was surprised by the rise in the farm financial performance index.

“Producers in October told us they felt better about the future,” he says. “When I look at myself and other economists, we are not quite that optimistic about the future and think 2025 could be another challenging year.”

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.