Farm Show Spotlights Indiana’s Ag Optimism
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Fort Wayne Farm Show is underway and an agricultural banker says the picture in Indiana "may be a little bit stronger" than other Midwestern states. PNC Bank Agriculture Banking Market Manager Warren Graeff is attending the three-day regional event that attracts some 40,000 visitors to northeast Indiana and says he is hearing "improved optimism" from producers. He tells Inside INdiana Business prices stabilized last year after a difficult 2015 and the outlook for this year is even better.
Graeff says farmland values and profitability are positive in Indiana, compared to some other states. "We’re seeing that farmers in Indiana are fairly frugal and are fairly tight-fisted, so they tend to be a little bit better managers as far as the ag economy is concerned. We haven’t seen, for example, farmland prices get as high in Indiana as we have in some other states. We’ve seen some good profitability in the state of Indiana," he said.
The Fort Wayne Farm Show is in its 28th year and runs through Thursday at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. It features farm technology demonstrations, the latest in machinery and educational seminars from organizations like Northeastern Indiana Soil and Water Conservation Districts and Purdue Cooperative Extension.
Editor’s note: a previous version incorrectly referred to Graeff as an economist.