U.S. farmers see the current state of the ag economy less of a concern than in the future, Successful Farming reported. For November, the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer was recorded at 128, a seven-point decline from October’s 135 and the second-lowest reading of 2017. The barometer is based on a monthly survey of 400 agricultural producers from across the country. The November slide in sentiment was primarily driven by reduced optimism about the future, said James Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture. “We saw the Index of Future Expectations fall by 10 points, while the barometer’s other sub-index, the Index of Current Conditions, held steady at 129,” Mintert said in a release. Sixty percent of respondents said they thought the next 12 months would be bad times financially in U.S. agriculture; that percentage has been increasing since July, when 50 percent said they were expecting bad times.