USDA to tour dairy farms across the country

Dec 22, 2016

Officials will collect data related to the industry’s financial well-being

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Starting in January 2017, officials from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will visit dairy farms across the United States to collect data for the final phase of the 2016 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS).

The annual survey collects information on production costs, practices and the financial well-being of American farm families. The USDA chooses targeted commodities on a rotational basis, but this year an additional focus is on corn and dairy.

The collected data will provide policymakers with an idea of how recent legislation and programs, including the Dairy Margin Protection Program, has impacted dairy farmers across the United States. The program “provides dairy farmers with payments when dairy margins are below the margin coverage levels the producers chooses each year," according to its website.

“The structure of dairy farming in the United States has changed dramatically over the last two decades, making these economic data more crucial than ever before,” NASS Census and Survey Division director, Barbara Rater, said in a release. “The 2016 ARMS will help determine how recent policy changes have affected American dairy farms.”

Dairy farmers chosen to participate in the survey will receive a postcard. Trained enumerators will then set up appointments to visit farms and conduct interviews. Visits will run from January through April.

Farms.com has reached out to the National Milk Producers Federation for comments about the survey and what dairy farmers might expect during a visit.

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