USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service is currently contacting farmers and ranchers across the country to gather information for some of its most important surveys of the year. During the first two weeks of June, NASS is gathering information about U.S. crops and livestock through three simultaneous surveys focusing on agricultural acreage, crops produced and stored, and hog inventory.
Trained NASS enumerators will personally interview producers to collect information about the 42-thousand tracts of farmland they operate. In addition, tens of thousands of respondents have already received surveys in the mail and can fill out the questionnaire using NASS’s easy and secure online system or mail it back. NASS representatives will also contact farmers and ranchers who have not yet responded to the survey to help them provide responses over the telephone.
Bob Bass, Director of NASS’s National Operations Center, says – the comprehensive crop, livestock, and economic data collected benefit farmers and others in the agricultural industry. It contributes to a stable economic climate; creates an accurate, up-to-date picture of U.S. agriculture; helps producers make marketing decisions; and reduces risk. Because it is equally available to producers, agri-businesses, commodities markets, researchers, and other interested parties, Bass says – it creates a more level playing field.
Source: NAFB News Service