survey program

The first few weeks of June are always some of the busiest weeks for USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Our agency reaches out to more than 100,000 farmers and ranchers across the country as we conduct three major surveys: June Area, Crops/Stocks and Hogs and Pigs Inventory surveys.

Having worked in management positions in NASS’s Georgia and Washington offices, I can honestly say that conducting these surveys is not an easy task. We dedicate the first two weeks of the month to gathering the information and process it in the next two. The data has to be ready to go by the last Friday of June (June 29 this year), when NASS publishes its June Acreage report, setting the first official estimates for the upcoming harvest.

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA's rich science and research portfolio.

By Joe Reilly, Associate Administrator, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service

I grew up on a small farm near Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, where my family - like many others across the United States - helped provide the food and fiber to build and sustain America. Visiting these types of farm communities today there is a distinctive change on the rural horizon from when I was a child – the presence of wind turbines, solar panels, ethanol plants, and other bioenergy tools and resources.