South Dakota will be one of 32 states taking part in a small grains survey conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the United States Department of Agriculture this fall. The goal of the survey will be to obtain more detailed and accurate information on yields and total planted and harvested acres of small grains.
The goal of NASS is to gather information using concrete facts and figures so producers, stakeholders and politicians can make educated decisions based on non-biased information. Producers may find this information helpful when making forward marketing and feed purchasing decisions. The data will also be used to help develop federal and state programs that support farmers and ranchers, such as determining accurate rates for loans, disaster payments, crop insurance price elections and much more. If data collection is poor, there is not enough information on which to base the programs that serve producers.