Purdue Survey: Farmer Attitudes About Ag Economy Best in 4 Years

Purdue University released the results of their monthly survey that show how farmers are feeling about the ag economy, both now and for the future. Survey says: farmers are feeling better now than they have in the past four years!

The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer rose 10 points to a reading of 158 in the May survey. The boost was driven by a more optimistic outlook on U.S. agricultural exports and a less negative view of how tariffs will impact farm income in 2025.

Michael Langemeier, director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture, says the timing of the survey likely played a big part in the results.

“During the week we were asking this, there was some good news regarding tariffs with respect to China. I don’t know exactly what the timing was there, but it certainly was during that week. And so, I think that played into the optimism we saw in this month’s reading.”

The survey was conducted between May 12 and May 16. Jim Mintert, professor emeritus of ag econ at Purdue, agreed that timing played a part.

“This administration continues to have these short-term delays in implementation of tariffs. And that seems to give us this bounce in terms of expectations, not just in our index, but also in in other indexes. Right. You see it in the stock market, elsewhere. So, you get these very short-run responses, and I think we definitely picked up some of that this month.”

Farmers surveyed do feel better about the ag export picture in President Trump’s administration as opposed to the previous. They were asked, “Over the next 5 years, do you believe ag exports will increase, decrease, or remain about the same?”

“And for some time, people have, over time, become less and less optimistic about exports increasing. That changed this month big time,” Mintert explains. “The percentage of people who say they expect exports to increase over the next five years in May jumped to 52% up from just 33% a month earlier. That’s the highest percentage expecting exports to increase since November of 2020.”

And Langemeier adds that the answer to that question was only up over 50% once during the Biden administration.

Watch the Purdue Commercial AgCast where Mintert and Langemeier breakdown the Barometer results below.