NASS Discontinues County Estimates For Crops And Livestock and July Cattle Report

If you use the annual County Estimates for Crops and Livestock or the July Cattle report from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), plan on looking elsewhere to find that information.

NASS announced on Tuesday that it has eliminated those two reports, along with the Cotton Objective Yield Survey.

“They’re pretty significant,” Lance Honig acknowledged to Chip Flory, AgriTalk host, in a discussion on Wednesday afternoon. 

Too Few Dollars Available

Honig said the cuts are a direct result of the agency having fewer dollars available to develop the reports. As acting director of the NASS methodology division, Honig oversees all crop estimating programs at USDA-NASS. This includes more than 200 official USDA reports each year covering acreage, yield, production, price and value for more than 100 crop commodities.

“Certainly, we’re not excited about having to do that. But just like anybody else that has a budget to manage, you can only spend what you've got, and so we need to be respectful of that. Unfortunately, sometimes, hard decisions like this have to be made,” Honig said.

"Boy, Lance, the one that has raised the most questions that have come my way was about the county estimates on crops. That data was used in determining federal farm program payments, wasn't it?" Flory asked.

"Well, not as much as it used to be," Honig replied. 

Honig noted that from a crop insurance standpoint, The Risk Management Agency (RMA) has been utilizing more of their own internal data to support farm programs rather than relying on NASS data.

"We've worked closely with them to ensure that the impact won't be as extensive as a lot of folks might think, from the outside looking in," Honig said.

Pushback From Groups And Individuals

The agency’s decision to cut the reports was met with criticism from various ag groups and individuals.

“Unfortunately, due to poor government mismanagement, of literally everything, certain reports are being cancelled,” wrote Chris Swift, Swift Trading Co., in “Shootin’ The Bull,” his daily futures and commodity market commentary.

“While this is certainly not the first time, and most likely not the last, it is just another slap in the face of every producer out there by every government official that helped to promote this issue,” Swift added. 

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) also took exception to the decision by NASS.

“NCBA calls on USDA-NASS to immediately reverse this decision and continue delivering on its stated mission of providing timely, accurate, and useful statistics in service to U.S. agriculture,” said Ethan Lane, NCBA vice president of government affairs, in a prepared statement.

Decisions Weren't Made Lightly

Honig told Flory the agency didn’t want to cut the reports.

“In a perfect world, we don't want to discontinue anything. In fact, we'd love to do more,” he said. “That's what we're all about – providing as many statistics as possible about everything related to agriculture. But the reality is, we just can't do everything.”

Honig said the agency scrutinized the value of the reports and the information they provide. One of the factors they looked at is whether the same information the reports provide could be accessed elsewhere, and in each case, determined that the answer is yes.

“We’re trying not to leave anybody empty handed (regarding NASS reports). But as time goes on, if more of this (budget constraints) continues to happen, it's only going to get more painful, because you just have to go deeper and deeper every time it happens,” Honig said. “Money's tight everywhere, and it’s not unique just to NASS.”

The full discussion on AgriTalk is available here: