By Samantha Horton
Farmers are more optimistic about their future following the U.S. November election results, according to the latest Purdue University Ag Economy Barometer. That’s despite President-elect Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs that in the past have hurt farmers.
Trump has once again proposed new tariffs when he takes office that would target countries including Canada, Mexico and China. During his first term as president, Trump put tariffs on imported steel coming from China. In response, China retaliated by taxing U.S. soybeans.
Indiana ranks fourth in the country for soybean production and fifth for corn.
Ag barometer co-author James Mintert said while the November survey results show about four out of 10 farmers are concerned about the trade war, that wasn’t reflected in views on farm income.
Mintert said that could be because farmers don’t believe a trade war would have much of a negative impact — or maybe they recall what happened during the previous trade war.
“The government stepped in with what were known as market facilitation program payments to help offset some of that negative impact on income,” Mintert said.
While the potential of tariffs had some respondents concerned, there was increased optimism for environmental regulations being less restrictive after President-elect Donald Trump promised to deregulate those protections.
The survey found a 45-percent increase in the number of respondents from before and after the elections that believe environmental regulations would be less restrictive over the next five years.
Mintert said farmers were more optimistic in several areas following the recent election.
“We also picked up that people expected to see a more favorable tax environment for agriculture, both in the income tax front and on the estate tax front,” he said. “But probably the most striking response we got was with respect to how people think the regulations might impact their farm businesses.”
Mintert said the same questions asked in November are being used for the December survey. The purpose will be to look for how responses might change over a one month period where a lot of uncertainty continues to linger.
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