Purdue University’s Ag Economy Barometer survey declined 20 points last month, but still remains high.
Purdue professor James Mintert is one of the study authors and says a number of factors could be behind this month’s dip, including uncertainty and inflation concerns.
But, he notes the overall index remains quite high.
"If you look at the longer-term history of the barometer, and you exclude the last several months, that still leaves the barometer at one of its highest readings since we started collecting data in the fall of 2015," he said.
Mintert notes, there’s separation between how crop and livestock farmers view the future, however.
"The industry has grown over time, and we’ve gotten to the point where the balance between processing capacity and the volume of animals that need to move through the channel is very tightly balanced."
Mintert said pandemic-induced processing challenges mixed with high feed costs make the economics for livestock producers more difficult. While the high cost of feed benefits row crop farmers, it hurts many livestock operations.
