May 18, 2012

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will spend the first two weeks of June surveying thousands of farmers across Nebraska to get a clear indication of the acreage and supply of major commodities for 2012.

Through the June Agricultural Survey and the June Area Survey, NASS will gather data on what crops have been planted and are in storage. This information will provide a comprehensive picture of how things are shaping up in 2012 for the U.S. agriculture industry.

The agriculture survey is done online, by mail or by phone. The area survey is conducted through visits of randomly selected tracts of land and interviews of the operators of any farm or ranch on that land. Information is collected on crop acreage – including biotech crops—as well as grain stocks, livestock inventory, cash rents, land values, and value of sales, said Dean Groskurth, Director of the NASS Nebraska Field Office.

The information gathered from these surveys is critical to several key national reports, including the annual acreage report and the quarterly grain stocks report, both to be released on June 29.

As with all NASS surveys, information provided by respondents is confidential by law. NASS safeguards the privacy of all responses and publishes only state and national level data, Groskurth said.

All reports are available on the NASS website.. For more information on NASS surveys and reports, call the NASS Nebraska Field Office at (800) 582-6443.