farm outlook

Strong harvest-time commodity prices pushed farmer confidence to its highest level in 16 months, said a Purdue University poll of large operators released on Tuesday. The abrupt 24-point climb in the Ag Economy Barometer "was motivated by producers' stronger perception of current financial conditions on their farms," said agricultural economists James Mintert and Michael Langemeier.

Slightly more than half of the country's biggest farmers say they planted cover crops this year, indicating a broadening acceptance of the crops' benefits for soil health and the accompanying complication they bring to land management, said Purdue's Ag Economy Barometer on Tuesday. Cover crops received prominent attention this year as a potential way to earn money from a carbon contract while mitigating climate change on the farm.

An unusually large portion of U.S. farmers and ranchers expects worse financial performance on their farms this year than last, said a Purdue University poll released on Tuesday. And although producers are less worried by the coronavirus pandemic than in the spring, they are calling for …