The Agriculture Department's National Agricultural Statistics Service will reinstate its July Cattle and County Estimates for Crops and Livestock reports, both of which ended last year due to budget constraints.
In a notice issued Wednesday, USDA's Agricultural Statistics Board said the agency would resume publication of the reports, which were canceled last April. At the time, the board said the decision "was not made lightly, but was necessary, given appropriated budget levels." The agency's Cotton Objective Yield Survey was also discontinued.
"When you’re faced with a limited budget, you have to prioritize," former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters last April.
The decision to cancel the reports was met with outcry from major ag groups like the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the National Grain and Feed Association. In a letter to former USDA Undersecretary for Research, Education and Economics Chavonda Jacobs-Young last April, AFBF president Zippy Duvall called the July cattle report "one of the very tentpoles of cattle market transparency" and said crop insurance products are built on NASS county yield and production numbers.
Leaders of NGFA and NCBA both applauded the decision to reinstate the reports.
"The return of the July Cattle Report and County Estimates is a big win for cattle producers who utilize these reports to efficiently run their operations and make important marketing decisions," NCBA Executive Director of Government Affairs Tanner Beymer said in a release. "These reports are not costly to produce and the amount they are used by the U.S. agriculture sector make them extremely cost-effective."
The county estimate report's reinstatement is effective for the 2024 crop season for corn, cotton, peanuts, rice, sorghum and soybeans, and for the 2025 crop season for barley, oats and wheat. Release dates are as follows:
- County Estimates – corn, sorghum, soybeans: May 6
- County Estimates – cotton: May 12
- County Estimates – cattle: May 13
- County Estimates – rice, peanuts: May 23
- July Cattle: July 25
For more news, go to www.agri-pulse.com.
