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Purdue/CME Ag Economy Barometer shows slight improvement for July
Farmer sentiment rose slightly in July despite rising costs and lower crop prices.
Jim Mintert, head of Purdue’s Center for Commercial Agriculture says the latest Purdue University/CME Ag Economy Barometer does show a slight month over month increase. “But, sentiment is still much, much weaker than it was this time last year,” he says. “Last year at this time the Barometer itself was at a reading of 137. All three of the indices were down between 23 and 25 percent compared to last year. Producers are very uneasy.”
He tells Brownfield there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the ag economy, especially as farmers look ahead to the 2023 growing season. “The number one concern has been higher input costs,” he says. “That’s clearly on people’s minds and it’s on their minds when I have individual conversations with them. Number two in this month’s survey was a little bit different – we did get lower crop and/or livestock prices as the number two concern. I think that could have been related to the fact that we’ve seen some weaker crop prices between when we did the June survey and when we did it in July.”
Mintert says producers also expressed concern about rising interest rates and input availability.
The Ag Economy Barometer is calculated each month from 400 U.S. agricultural producers’ responses to a telephone survey.
AUDIO: Jim Mintert, Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture
