Every month, Purdue’s ag economists survey 400 farmers across the U.S. asking how they feel about the future of the ag economy. However, this month’s results came as a surprise for those who conducted the survey.
“One of the things that I think might be going on here is people are a little more optimistic about 2025 than they are 2024,” said Dr. Michael Langemeier, Associate Director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.
For their monthly Purdue Ag Economy Barometer survey, just 23 percent of producers expect their farm’s financial condition to get worse over the next 12 months. That’s a sharply lower response this month compared to last month’s response of 38 percent who were expecting their farm finances to get worse in 2025.
“I have to admit that the people that responded to this survey this month are seeing something different than I’m seeing because I’m not as I’m not as optimistic—I’m not pessimistic, but not I’m not as optimistic,” says Langemeier.
He expressed his lack of optimism for an improved ag economy because input prices remain on the higher side while grain prices continue to be on the lower side.
“[The farmers we surveyed] view the downturn that we’ve seen here in 2024 as being transitory and actually think maybe we’re going to see a rebound of sorts in 2025,” says Dr. Jim Mintert, Director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.
“It was a surprisingly optimistic survey this month. The one thing that might have influenced this a little bit was the fact that we have heard so many very positive yield reports this year, and that would maybe provide a little bit of a boost,” Mintert said.
The survey was conducted Oct. 14-18, three weeks before Election Day. Both Mintert and Langemeier also believe that the survey for next month, which will occur after Election Day, may have strikingly different results depending upon the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election.
CLICK HERE to find the full results of the Purdue Ag Economy Barometer survey.
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