Mood Among Farmers Encouraging

Producer sentiment increased for the second straight month in February, but producers continued to indicate uncertainty surrounding a possible U.S. withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), according to the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

The barometer read 140 in February, a 5-point increase from January’s reading. The increases mark a strong 14-point jump since December. February also marked the second-highest barometer reading since data collection began in 2015.

The barometer is based on a monthly survey of 400 U.S. agricultural producers.

The drivers of sentiment have shifted since the barometer hit a survey high in January 2017, said James Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture.

“In early 2017, producer sentiment was largely driven by an uptick in the future-looking measure of producer sentiment, the Index of Future Expectations,” he said. “More recently, the barometer’s upturn has been driven in part by a shift toward more positive sentiment regarding current farm financial conditions, as measured by the Index of Current Conditions.”

Mintert, who will speak at the Supply Summit in Omaha on Thursday morning, said the survey revealed uncertainty among farmers over NAFTA.