Farmer views of the ag economy worsened for the second month in a row in September, according to a monthly survey from Purdue University and the CME Group.
The overall rating of farmer sentiment dropped to a reading of 106 in the Ag Economy Barometer, a decrease from 115 in August and down from 123 in July. The rating is also lower than the 112 rating in September 2022.
According to the survey, “weakening prices for major crops and ongoing concerns about high production costs and interest rates weighed on producers’ minds this month.”
When asked about problems facing their farming operations, roughly one-third of the surveyed producers pointed to higher input costs were their top concern. Some 25% of respondents singled out rising interest rates and 22% mentioned declining commodity prices as a primary concern. Concerns about prices have grown since the beginning of the year, when 16% of producers mentioned it as a primary concern.
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This month’s survey asked about the use of cover crops, specifically on corn and soybean operations. A slight majority (52%) of that group say they are now planting cover crops. Of that subset, a little under half (47%) said they planted cover crops on less than a quarter of their farm, 37% reported planting cover crops on 26% to 50% of their farm, and the remaining 16% of those producers reported planting cover crops on more than 50% of their farm.
When asked how long they had been planting cover crops, 42% of producers said they had been doing it for less than five years; some 30% said six to 10 years.
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