County estimates survey to begin

Producers of row crops and hay will soon receive a survey that the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will use in estimating county-level crop yields for 2016.

NASS will begin mailing the questionnaire in the middle of October to more than 8,500 producers across the state of Illinois.

“Producers should know that these survey results have a direct impact on their farms and that accuracy is very important. NASS needs 30 reports in each county to publish county-level results, and those results are used directly by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) to implement the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) – County programs. A large majority of farms participate in these programs, and you can make a big difference when they need help,” said Mark Schleusener, Illinois State Statistician. “As required by Federal law, all responses are completely confidential,” Schleusener continued.

“We safeguard the privacy of all respondents, ensuring that no individual operation or producer can be identified. Individual responses are also exempt from the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA).”

“Many producers respond by mail, or on our secure website which can save them time. After a while, we will begin contacting producers on the phone to ensure adequate response rates in as many counties as possible. Because the sample size is so large, NASS will continue data collection into January of 2017. Results for corn and soybeans will be published in February 2017.”

For more information, call the NASS Heartland Regional Field Office at (800) 551-1014.