U.S. farmers are gearing up for one of the biggest crop plantings in history, but recent news has soured the highly optimistic views they had back in December, according to a new survey.
A new survey from DTN/The Progressive Farmer has found a decline in farmer confidence since December, with the survey's index score falling to 87.4, down from 94 at the end of last year. That's also the lowest that confidence has been since April 2010, Bloomberg reports. The big factors in the falling confidence are a sharp increase in fuel costs coupled with a decrease in the price of many crops.
"2012 is likely to be a year with declining markets for major crops," Dave Miller, the chief economist for the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, told the news source. "Seed costs are up, diesel is up, and land rent is up. You’re going to see margins squeezed."
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