It wasn’t that many years ago that corn and soybean growers were riding the wave of $7 corn, high land rent, and applying all the groceries to every acre. In 2016, that wave of optimism has disappeared as suggested in the DTN / Progressive Farmer Ag Producer Confidence Index (ACI) results.
The recent survey produced a U.S.-wide rating of 71.9 — which is the lowest score ion the seven year history of the ACI. A score of 100 is neutral, greater than 100 is optimistic and less than 100 is pessimistic. Midwestern producers specifically scored 58.5, while Southwestern producers scored 84.6 — likely a good contrast between the feelings of ranchers and corn/soybean growers.
Shaun Haney talked to Greg Horstmeier, DTN editor-in-chief, about the ACI results, the future of the U.S. ag economy, and how this impacts the work on a new U.S. farm bill. Greg also comments on the optimism at this moment in time versus the future, which showed interesting results in the harvest survey.
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