What are the biggest concerns that farmers have for next year? According to the latest survey from the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture, one particular concern has been growing over the past few months.
“No surprise—’high input costs’ remains the top concern, followed by ‘the risk of low output prices’ for crops and livestock,” according to Dr. James Mintert, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University, referring to the results from the latest Purdue Ag Economy Barometer survey.
“But the interesting thing that showed up these last two months is the availability of inputs,” said Mintert. “At one point, ‘availability of inputs’ had dropped all the way 5 percent of the people choosing that as a top concern. Last month, it was 10 percent. This month, it is 14 percent, which caught my eye. That’s still not a huge percentage compared to some of the other things we have responses for, but 14 percent saying ‘availability of inputs’—that’s interesting.”
“That was a surprise, and that put it in third place,” said Dr. Michael Langemeier, Director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture, who reviewed the results of the survey on the latest episode of the Purdue Commercial AgCast.
“My guess is that it’s related to what’s going on with tariffs,” said Mintert. “People are concerned about availability of things that we import—whether tariffs could raise the prices and make things hard to get.”
“People remember logistical problems we had back during the COVID pandemic, and maybe they’re thinking back and thinking this is going to cause similar disruptions?” said Langemeier.
Both Mintert and Langemeier draw the connection to another survey response from farmers.
“The related question is, ‘Do you expect the increased use of tariffs by the U.S. to strengthen or weaken the U.S. economy in the long run?’ In April and May, 70 percent of the respondents said they thought tariffs were going to strengthen the ag economy in the long run. However, this month it’s down to 51 percent, so it’s still a majority, but people are losing confidence long-term,” said Mintert.
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