USDA cancels July cattle, cotton crop report

WASHINGTON — The annual county crop and livestock estimates along with the July cattle report and cotton objective yield survey are now history after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the cancellation of those reports.

“The decision to continue these surveys and reports was not made lightly, but was necessary, given appropriated budget levels,” said a USDA National Agricultural Statistics Survey press release.

“NASS has and will continue to review its estimating programs using criteria focused on the needs of its mission and customers to prioritize budget decisions.”

These reports provide critical data and the decision to end them is “completely misguided,” according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

“It is disingenuous for the same agency which touts its commitment to transparency in livestock markets to arbitrarily cease publication of reports which provide just that,” said NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane.

“While it may be politically expedient to blame appropriators in Congress for this decision, cattle producers know better than to believe discontinuing a handful of reports will result in substantive cost savings for the department.

“NCBA calls on USDA-NASS to immediately reverse this decision and continue delivering on its stated mission of providing timely, accurate and useful statistics in service to U.S. agriculture.”

Other Changes

NASS previously announced several changes in its other data collection programs, including the reduction of the number of published states for the January cattle, December hogs and pigs, and quarterly milk production reports.

NASS plans to reduce the number of published states for cattle from 50 to 31 states — although NASS will publish all cattle and calves inventory, all cows inventory and calf crop for those 19 states.

The 19 states will be Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont and West Virginia.

NASS also announced its plans to reduce the number of published states for December hogs and pigs from 50 to 16 states.

The 16 published states will be Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Texas. The 34 non-published states will be accounted for as other states.

NASS plans to reduce the number of published states for quarterly milk production from 50 to 33 states.

The 17 non-published states will be Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, West Virginia, Wyoming. The non-published states will be accounted for as other states.