The American Farm Bureau urged USDA to reverse its decision to cancel livestock and crop surveys that are crucial to the success of America’s farmers and ranchers.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service recently announced it would no longer provide a July cattle inventory survey, as well as county-level estimates for crops and livestock and the objective yield survey for cotton. Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall sent a letter to USDA emphasizing the importance of the surveys, particularly the July cattle report.
“NASS’s two reports regarding the total U.S. cattle inventory, published in January and July, give farmers, ranchers, researchers, and other data users a full picture of supplies in the U.S. cattle sector at the beginning and in the middle of each year,” he says. “This allows for a fair assessment of the cattle market for the next six months.”
Eliminating the mid-year report will put the market in the dark.