ASB Notice

USDA NASS Discontinues County Level Estimates for Selected Crops

Issued Feb. 13, 2020 by the Agricultural Statistics Board of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's, National Agricultural Statistics Service. For more information, contact Lance Honig at (202) 720-2127 Lance.Honig@usda.gov.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will no longer publish county level estimates for dry edible beans, flaxseed, hay (alfalfa and other), potatoes, sugarbeets, sugarcane, sunflower (non-oil and oil varieties) and tobacco. In addition, NASS will discontinue county estimates based on irrigated/non-irrigated practices for all crops. These changes are effective beginning with the 2019 crop year.

The data collection cost for the surveys used to gather the data used for county level estimates had been partially funded through a cooperative agreement, which was not renewed. As a result, NASS is adjusting its county estimates program to reflect the lower funding availability. Before making this decision, NASS published the details of these intended changes in a Federal Register Notice, which allowed public comment. All feedback was carefully reviewed and considered before making the decision to discontinue these estimates.

All NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov .

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NASS is the federal statistical agency responsible for producing official data about U.S. agriculture and is committed to providing timely, accurate and useful statistics in service to U.S. agriculture.

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