Agricultural surveys serve a critical role in farm policy decisions because they inform elected leaders on what’s happening on U.S. farm and ranches, according to the administrator of the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
“We like to go directly to the source that has the information,” said Hubert Hamer, NASS administrator, in an interview with the Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) Radio Network. “We have a great relationship with the farmers and ranchers in the United States and Texas, and we’re more than happy to collect that information by mail, by phone, internet options—a lot of different ways you can participate.”
NASS sends out various agricultural data-related products each year, hoping farmers and ranchers will complete the surveys with updated information from their operations.
The next Census of Agriculture will be conducted this year.
From a privacy and confidentiality standpoint, Hamer noted that information provided by farmers and ranchers is protected by law. Survey findings can only be published at the county, state, district or national levels.
Hamer said Texas is a huge part of the U.S. farm economy and an important piece in the overall puzzle of agricultural statistics. He said the new farm bill and farm policy choices need to be data driven.
“We’re really pushing that farmers and ranchers will go to our website to provide information to us. It’s cheaper, more efficient. It keeps you from being called directly by our call center, so there’s a lot of value in providing that information directly to our website,” Hamer said.
Hear more from Hamer on the TFB Radio Network or visit the NASS website for more information on agricultural surveys.