Ag Economy Barometer

As the dust settled on what turned out to be a volatile June and early July for commodity markets, agricultural producer sentiment has turned higher (Figure 1). The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer, which is based on a monthly survey of 400 agricultural producers, came in at 112 for July, up from 104 in June and 97 in May.  The improvement in producer sentiment occurred despite the fact that grain and oilseed prices declined sharply in late June and early July, the report said, adding that the uptick in sentiment was driven by producers' expectations for the future. Specifically, the producer Index of Future Expectations jumped to 121 in July, well above June’s observation of 107 and the highest reading for the index since data collection began in the fall of 2015.