Corn with two hundred dollar bills on topThe November Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer report shows farmer sentiment at its highest levels since before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Rallying corn, soybean and wheat prices earlier this fall and government program payments were the largest drivers of the improved sentiment, which economists say is a new record for the index score, overtaking the number for February 2020, the previous high. Twenty-five percent of farmers surveyed say their operations are better off financially than they were a year ago, the highest response for that question since the survey started in 2015. Confidence in both the farmland market and grain export sales — specifically regarding how China fulfills Phase One trade agreement purchase obligations — contributed to the record-high optimism in farm country. See all the survey’s results.