USDA Surveys To Provide Insight On 2015 Agriculture

May 05, 2015

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will spend the first two weeks of June surveying thousands of farmers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina to get a clear indication of the production and supply of major commodities for 2015. NASS will compile information collected across the country into publically accessible reports to ensure the confidentiality of individual farmer information.

These surveys are among the largest and most important conducted by the USDA NASS and serve as a primary source of agricultural information and will provide accurate and reliable data about 2015 planted acreages of major crops, grain stocks, and livestock in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and the United States.

Producers rely on the survey results to make production, marketing, and investment decisions. Congress utilizes the information to design better regulations and farm programs. Industry analysts, extension agents, farm organizations, and agricultural lenders use the data in a variety of ways to directly benefit the grower.

Growers across the South will be contacted during the coming weeks to obtain data regarding their operations. These data will be collected by mail, phone, and personal interviews. Growers will also be given the opportunity to report on the Internet for selected surveys.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.