Farmers’ worries about current conditions and their farms' financial performances started to ease in August, according to the monthly Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.
After seeing declines over the past three months, the barometer rose four points in August to a reading of 138, as producer sentiment indexes for farm financial performance and current conditions saw some of their highest readings since May.
“Yield prospects stabilized or improved for many producers in August as some precipitation fell in areas that had been abnormally dry and drought-stricken,” which help to explain the increases, James Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture, said in a release.
Nearly four in 10 producers surveyed expressed concern that farm input prices will rise by 8% or more in the next 12 months. Additionally, one in five respondents believe that over the next 12 months, farm input prices will increase by more than 12%.
Approximately half of corn and soybean growers participating in the survey expected farmland cash rental rates for the upcoming year will surpass 2021 levels.
The Ag Economy Barometer is created using telephone survey responses from 400 U.S. agricultural producers.
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