For the third month in a row, agricultural producer sentiment weakened in October as the Ag Economy Barometer declined to 121, 3 points lower than a month earlier. The modest decline in the overall sentiment index occurred as a result of producers’ weaker perceptions regarding both current and future conditions in the production agriculture sector. The Index of Current Conditions declined 5 points to 135 in October while the Index of Future Expectations fell to 114 from 116 a month earlier. Recent weakness in farmer sentiment appears to be driven by a wide variety of issues, with concerns about input price rises topping the list. The Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer sentiment index is calculated each month from 400 U.S. agricultural producers’ responses to a telephone survey. This month’s survey was conducted from October 18 to 22, 2021.

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