The US Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will be contacting farmers nationwide to gather final, 2020 year-end crop production numbers and the amount of grain and oilseeds stored on farms. At the same time, NASS will also survey grain facility operators to determine year-end off-farm grain and oilseed stocks.
South Dakota State Statistician Erik Gerlach says these surveys are the largest and most important year-end surveys conducted by NASS. He says they are the basis for the official USDA estimates of production and harvested acres of all major agricultural commodities in the United States as well as grain and oilseed supplies. Data from the survey will benefit farmers by providing timely and accurate information to help them make year-end business decisions and begin planning for the next growing and marketing season.
Gerlach says responses to the survey will be used in calculating county-level yields which have a direct impact on farmers because USDA’s Farm Service Agency may use the data in administering producer programs and in determining disaster assistance program calculations. He says NASS cannot publish a county yield unless it receives enough reports from producers in that county to make a statistically defensible estimate. In 2019, NASS wasn’t able to publish information from several of South Dakota’s large producing counties because of an insufficient number of responses.
As required by federal law, Gerlach says all responses are completely confidential. He says USDA NASS safeguards the privacy of all respondents, ensuring no individual operation or producer can be identified. Individual responses are also exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
Survey results will be published in several reports, including the Crop Production Annual Summary and the quarterly Grain Stocks report, both to be released Jan. 12, 2021. These and all NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov.
For more information call the NASS South Dakota Field Office at 800-582-6443.
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