1-24 IAN Agriculture Confidence
The Progressive Farmer Releases Agriculture and Agribusiness Confidence Indexes showing that Farmer, Agribusiness Sentiments Remain Positive.
Farmers are still optimistic about the overall state of the agriculture industry but slightly less than a year ago, according to the December 2013 DTN/The Progressive Farmer Agriculture and Agribusiness Confidence Index measuring current and future sentiment of the agriculture sector.
I called Darren Newsome, DTN Senior Market Analyst to ask about the Composite Agriculture Confidence Index: “ The Composite Agriculture Confidence Index, which surveyed 500 randomly selected producers about their present and future situations, came in at 105.5, down from 109.1 in December 2012. A value of 100 is considered neutral. Higher numerical values indicate optimism, and values lower than 100 indicate pessimism. The composite index is divided into two time frames, present conditions and future expectations. “
The future expectations index revealed a significant decline and according to the survey, the ratings slip throughout the year can be attributed to increased crop production input costs and decreased farm incomes. The farmers’ index for current conditions slipped throughout 2013 from 135.3 in march to 128.8 in September before closing out the year at 120.7. Most of the slide came from crop producers, while livestock producers’ attitudes held steady.
There was a noticeable drop in the composite index with Midwest farmers, where the index held steady at 109 the last three surveys but fell to 103.4 in December. The composite index did rise by one point with Southwest farmers.
