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Sentiment is up, but farmers are still concerned about impact of COVID-19
Farmer sentiment is up slightly, but producers surveyed in the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer say they’re still concerned about the impact of COVID-19.
Jim Mintert is the director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.
“Roughly seven out of 10 farmers say they’re pretty worried about what’s taking place in respect to the coronavirus and what that means in terms of the impact on farm profitability,” he says.
He says when farmers were asked what their number one concern regarding their farm and COVID-19 is…”two months in a row now people have come back in said they’re most worried about market access, second place was financial, and then a very distant third place was health and safety,” he says. “But, a little over 40 percent said market access.”
Mintert says two-thirds of farmers surveyed indicated US agriculture will need more financial assistance to combat the impact of the virus.
“I think the message there is that the CARES Act is positive and has provided a booth,” he says. “I think we saw a little reflection of that in the barometer itself this month, but longer term this doesn’t really solve the problem from a lot of producers perspective.”
The monthly survey of 400 US farmers was conducted May 18-22.
Audio: Jim Mintert
