Farmers Predict Financials to Rise Slightly This Year

The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer is a nationwide measure of the health of the U.S. agricultural economy and surveys agricultural producers on economic sentiment each month. According to their latest survey, the farm financial performance index rose slightly.

Jim Mintert with Purdue’s Center for Commercial Agriculture said the rise was surprising. “Producers seem to have a bottoming out of their farm financial performance expectations at about planning time and then as the growing season starts to progress, they start to see their expectations for financial performance to improve somewhat,” he says.

Mintert says he’s noticing a pattern. “In 2021, that index bottomed out in May and then improved as we progressed into the growing season. In 2022, it did the same thing. It bottomed out in May and then improved as we went through the growing season. Same pattern in 2023.”

EDITOR’S TAKE:

We too see patterns in farmer/rancher attitudes and actions throughout the year. They are extremely focused on planning in the late fall and winter months. Spring is another busy time – especially if they have both crop and livestock operations. Depending on the commodity mix, summer can be very busy, especially for fruit and vegetable and Agri-tourism operations. And, of course, fall may be the busiest time of year, bringing in the bountiful harvest and preparing for tax season. In other words – they are busy all year, but some times are busier than others, thus, allowing them to focus on different matters. Be sure you think about how your marketing and advertising plans can better mesh with the schedules of the farmers/ranchers in your area. Maybe those mobile service calls in the spring or fall would be extremely beneficial to their operations – helping to keep them at peak operational efficiency.