By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter

Texas farmers and ranchers will soon receive a survey in the mail from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), if they have not received one already, as the department gears up for the 2027 Census of Agriculture.

“We’re mailing many thousands of forms to folks, a very short form, to find out if they’re actually farming still, or maybe have come into farming,” Joe Parsons, administrator for USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA NASS) said. “If you get one of those in the mail, and you’re not farming or you are, please fill it out. It will help us do a great job for U.S. agriculture.”

The form helps USDA prepare its list of active farmers and ranchers for the Census of Agriculture.

Parsons said it’s important that farmers and ranchers respond to those surveys as it helps USDA provide timely, accurate and useful statistics on U.S. agriculture.

“Good data is good results,” Parsons told the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network. “Our goal is to provide timely, accurate and useful statistics and service to U.S. agriculture, and the way we can do that is to have good data. We use administrative data from the Farm Service Agency once it’s available, et cetera. We have some satellite imagery and other things, but nothing beats great data from US farmers and ranchers.”

The data USDA NASS receives from these surveys is also helpful to U.S. lawmakers.

“We do a farm financial survey, for example. It’s called the Ag Resource Management Survey. When I’m asked by policymakers about input prices and other things, that survey is just invaluable to show what the actual reality is and what the challenges are and where they’re at across U.S. agriculture,” Parsons said. “That’s really powerful.”

Policymakers use that information to debate programs and policies and ways to distribute or allocate funding or appropriations.

“Having that data available is really important, and I think it really comes home for industries whenever one of those issues comes to the forefront,” Parsons said. “I know that when you’re getting a phone call from one of our data collection staff, and you’re busy and doing other things, you think, ‘why should I take the time out?’ But these public goods, these statistics are of value to you and to U.S. agriculture.”

The U.S. Census of Agriculture is conducted by NASS every five years.

According to NASS, the census provides the only source of uniform, comprehensive and impartial ag data for every county in the nation.

The department only publishes aggregate data, not individual or farm-specific data.

Those who have received a NASS survey and have a code may respond online at https://portal.agcounts.usda.gov/.