There are many unknowns in farming, many leading to legitimate fears about business sustainability for your farming operation. What are your biggest concerns for the farm? Purdue research is showing an interesting trend.
“People have consistently told us that their biggest concern is the risk of high input prices or rising input prices,” says Dr. Jim Mintert, director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.
He says if you think about the last 30 to 40 years, farmers have tended to be more concerned about the risk of lower crop and livestock prices. His Purdue/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer, a monthly survey of producers, tells a different story.
“I think sometimes, we kind of think, well, the economy is opened back up, COVID is over, but I think from an agricultural producer perspective, things aren’t quite back to normal. People are worried about things that historically were not at top of mind, and that’s really influenced their sentiment and their outlook.”
Things like the risk of rising interest rates.
The rise in fertilizer prices started this trend, but those prices look better than they did 12 months ago.
“It is true, that’s a much better picture than 12 months ago, and I think people are going to be glad of that when they’re doing some of their yearend purchases that we typically do in much of agriculture, but it’s still elevated. And if you look at all the other inputs, they’re actually still up, even compared to last year and last year was already an elevated level. So, if you look at it from a little broader perspective, you know, the real issue is what are the breakeven levels for corn and soybeans? And they are much higher than they were before the pandemic started.”
This, among other important topics, will be discussed on January 5 at their annual Top Farmer Conference. You can attend in person in West Lafayette, or remotely. Registration details can be found at purdue.ag/topfarmer.
