Thanks for checking in to see what we’ve been up to at the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture during 2024. One thing we’ve learned over the last decade is that U.S. farmers and agribusiness professionals like to receive information and education in a wide variety of formats and we’ve responded by providing in-person programs, webinars and videos, podcasts, short web postings, occasional long-form articles, decision aids, and tools! I’ll provide some key highlights from this past year and in the remainder of the report you’ll find details about the diverse programming we provided during the year.

The Purdue Top Farmer Conference was held on January 5^th in West Lafayette. Given the success we had with offering the conference online the last few years, we decided to provide the conference in a hybrid format with the program conducted in-person at Purdue’s Beck Center and simultaneously offered via Zoom. Over 230 farmers and agribusiness professionals registered for the conference with a near 50-50 split between in-person and online attendance.  Providing the conference in-person and online made it possible to reach producers and agribusiness personnel in 28 different states and countries. This year’s program focused on the U.S. economy’s outlook, the future impact of biofuels on agriculture, the long-term outlook for corn and soybeans, and prospects for ag policy changes.

Next up in late January and early February was the annual Association of Agricultural Production Executives (AAPEX) annual conference held in Palm Springs, California. This was the eighth year that the Center collaborated with the AAPEX board of directors on the program attended by 140 AAPEX members from across the country. Just a few weeks later, the Center provided a Learning Center program focused on positioning a farm for long-term success at the Commodity Classic held in Houston, Texas.

The 2024 Purdue Farm Management Tour was held in Randolph County, Indiana in mid-July with 150 farmers and agribusiness community members in attendance for the tour and reception. Thanks to the Clements, Miller, and Goltstein families for their willingness to open up their farming operations to visitors and to share how their farms have successfully integrated the next generation of family members into their farming operation. Tour attendees also gained insights into drainage management, dairy production, and risk management.

In addition to providing written content pertaining to crop basis, crop budgets, custom rates, farmland values and cash rental rates, ag jobs, agricultural policy, business strategy, financial management, and strategic risk; the Center continues to deliver information online. Since launching the podcast, the Center has delivered 180 Purdue Commercial AgCast podcast episodes with over 59k downloads by listeners. The Center’s monthly newsletter Commercial AgNews continues to be a great way to stay up-to-date regarding upcoming programming as well as what’s new on the Center’s website with over 9.3k subscribers. Social media is also an important way to get information out to users and the Center is active on both X/Twitter and Facebook with over 2.3k followers.

As the nation’s only monthly survey of commercial ag producers, the Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer provides insights into producer sentiment while also providing opportunities to learn more about producers’ reactions to contemporaneous events affecting the agricultural sector. Each month during 2024 the Center published an Ag Economy Barometer report summarizing survey results, posted a short YouTube summary video and an in-depth podcast interpretation of the current month’s barometer survey, all accessible via the Center’s website and by free subscription. The barometer is widely reported in both the ag and business press and is the subject of a large number of media interviews each month.

Thank you for your interest in and support of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture. As always, if you have suggestions for future programs or research, feel free to contact us.