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CONTENTS

f Contents

Agenda ........................................................................................................................................................ 1

Breakout Sessions....................................................................................................................................... 1

Breakout Session Descriptions ................................................................................................................... 2

Meeting Session Links................................................................................................................................ 2

Foreign Agricultural Service....................................................................................................................... 3

World Agricultural Outlook Board............................................................................................................. 9

National Agricultural Statistics Service.................................................................................................... 12

Economic Research Service...................................................................................................................... 16

Farm Service Agency................................................................................................................................ 24

Agricultural Marketing Service ................................................................................................................ 27

U.S. Census Bureau .................................................................................................................................. 33

Notes......................................................................................................................................................... 36
1

2022 USDA Fall Virtual Data Users’ Meeting 

Tuesday, November 15, 2022 

 

 

Live Webinar – All times are Eastern Time 

AGENDA

12:00 p.m. ........................................Welcome and Overview ...................................................Joe Parsons

National Agricultural Statistics Service

12:10 p.m. ..............................................Agency Reviews............................................................................

Patrick Packnett, Foreign Agricultural Service

Bill Chambers, World Agricultural Outlook Board

Lance Honig, National Agricultural Statistics Service

Kelly Maguire, Economic Research Service

Mike Walter, Farm Service Agency

Jason Karwal, Agricultural Marketing Service

Joseph DeCampo, U.S. Census Bureau

12:50 p.m. ............................................................................................................................................Break

1:00 p.m. ...........................................................Open Forum—Questions and comments from participants

2:20 p.m. ..............................................................................................................................................Break

2:30 p.m. ............................................................................................................................Breakout Session

3:30 p.m. .................................................................................................................................................End

BREAKOUT SESSIONS

November 15

All times Eastern Session A Session B

2:30pm AMS Market News

Agricultural Marketing Service

An Overview of Wheat, Dairy, and Food Price 

Outlook Data

Economic Research Service

We are pleased to have representatives from the Risk Management Agency (RMA) and Energy 

Information Administration (EIA) available for questions during the Open Forum.
2

BREAKOUT SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

Session A

AMS Market News – Agricultural Marketing Service

AMS Market News will present on the topics of HTS Codes and the process of collecting and reporting 

import volumes, the Market News Mobile Application, and the current Market News initiatives to 

increase the supply of critical organic market information for data users.

Session B

An Overview of Wheat, Dairy, and Food Price Outlook Data – Economic Research Service

ERS will present an overview of the monthly Wheat, Dairy, and Food Price Outlook data products. The 

break-out will include information on what is included in the data product, how it is used, and how to 

access the data. 

MEETING SESSION LINKS

Main Session – 12:00 pm ET

Register: https://www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_HOBHIhY5QwW8WfACU8n8zw

Phone Only: +1 669 254 5252 or +1 646 828 7666 | Webinar ID: 160 279 6980| Passcode: 618293

Breakout - 2:30 pm ET

Session A – AMS Market News

Join: https://www.zoomgov.com/j/1607282042?pwd=azUraTFxZWl1RlJxT2FhYnFlczBzUT09

Phone Only: +1 669 254 5252 or +1 646 828 7666 | Webinar ID: 160 728 2042| Passcode: 0935077

Session B – An Overview of Wheat, Dairy, and Food Price Outlook Data

Join: https://www.zoomgov.com/j/1606100369

Phone Only: +1 669 254 5252 or +1 646 828 7666 | Webinar ID: 160 610 0369| Passcode: 653129
3

FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL SERVICE

Update on Information and Data Products Available from

USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service

November 2022

Export Sales Reporting 

Authorized under Section 602 of the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978, the Export Sales Reporting (ESR) 

Program requires exporters of reportable U.S. commodities to report each week all their export sales 

regardless of the quantity, to the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), United States Department of 

Agriculture (USDA). There are 40 commodities currently covered under the program to include wheat, 

wheat products, barley, corn, grain sorghum, oats, rye, soybeans, soybean cake and meal, soybean oil, 

flaxseed, linseed oil, cotton, sunflower seed oil, cottonseed, cottonseed cake and meal, cottonseed oil, rice, 

cattle hides and skins, wet blues, beef, and pork. Users can access the ESR System at 

https://apps.fas.usda.gov/export-sales/esrd1.html. In addition to being available online through the ESR 

webpage and the ESR Query System, weekly and daily reports are now available through email via 

GovDelivery to all users who sign up. To receive ESR daily reports via email, register at:

https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDAFAS/subscriber/new.

The August 2022 launch of the Export Sales Reporting and Maintenance System 2.0 (ESRMS 2.0) met 

challenges which forced FAS to revert to legacy ESRMS. Legacy ESRMS will continue to be used by 

exporters until FAS corrects concerns and issues identified during the launch of ESRMS 2.0. FAS plans 

to schedule feedback sessions with exporters and data users to gain further insight on their needs regarding 

data entry and reports. Further, FAS will conduct additional user acceptance testing and training sessions 

prior to launching ESRMS 2.0 again. 

For additional information, contact the Export Sales Reporting team at esr@usda.gov.

Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) 

USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) provides timely reports on foreign markets through the 

Global Agriculture Information Network (GAIN) database. The GAIN database houses reports from 

98 offices covering 177 countries that include timely intelligence and analysis on global agriculture, 

agricultural markets, and foreign government policies affecting agricultural trade. In 2021, approximately 

3,230 GAIN reports were submitted and published for web-based retrieval. This was an increase of 

14.8% over the prior year. To date, Post has submitted over 1,725 GAIN reports. The 2022 reports have 

been downloaded almost 1 million times to date (933,006). Commodity reporting requirements are 

reviewed annually to ensure that reporting aligns with changes and developments in global agricultural 

production and trade. Reporting on climate change, the impact on the war in Ukraine, and reports on the 

EU Farm to Fork Strategy are examples of issues covered. 

Users can access GAIN reports dating back to 1996 from the GAIN homepage: 

https://gain.fas.usda.gov/#/.

For questions about the GAIN search engine please contact 1-GAINAppSupport@fas.usda.gov. To 

receive GAIN reports via email, register at:

https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDAFAS/subscriber/new
4

Production Estimates

FAS maintains a website that is a dynamic global crop production portal with key information including 

World Agricultural Production (WAP) briefs, Commodity Intelligence Reports (CIR), geospatial 

applications, crop production maps, and crop calendars at a subnational level for the top-20 producing 

countries (Figure 1, https://www.ipad.fas.usda.gov).

FAS is currently working to integrate the IPAD crop production portal with the new FAS website. The 

current focus is to transition crop production maps, crop calendars and production-related reports, with 

the expectation of completing the initial transition by the end of the fiscal year.

Figure 1. FAS home page for global crop production
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The FAS website for global crop production also hosts an application called Crop Explorer that displays 

global and routinely updated data on precipitation, average temperature, maximum/minimum temperature, 

evapotranspiration, soil moisture, SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index) Drought Severity, NDVI 

(Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) vegetation conditions, snow cover, production maps, etc. Crop 

Explorer supports monitoring of conditions for 12 different crops: cotton, corn, barley, millet, rice, 

sorghum, wheat, soybeans, sunflower, rapeseed, peanuts, and palm oil.

(https://ipad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer/).

Crop Explorer also monitors SPI Drought Severity in 5-day time steps to quickly identify the severity of 

droughts that may reduce crop yields during the growing season. Efforts are underway to expand the crop 

production maps and calendars to the top-30 producing countries.

The Crop Explorer website was upgraded to monitor the latest crop conditions and seasonal rainfall 

received for specific crops grown within primary production states. The upgraded Crop Explorer monitors 

specific crops with related web apps called Corn Explorer, Soybean Explorer, Wheat Explorer, Cotton 

Explorer, etc. For example, the dashboard view for Corn Explorer shows corn production maps at subnational (state and county) levels, cumulative rainfall, and NDVI crop conditions for all major corn 

producing countries and regions (Figure 2).

For more information, please contact Curt Reynolds at curt.reynolds@usda.gov.

Figure 2. Commodity Explorers and Dashboard View of Corn Explorer 
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Global Agricultural and Disaster Assessment System (GADAS)

GADAS is a state-of-the-art Geographic Information System (GIS) that integrates a vast array of highly 

detailed earth observation data streams with cropland datasets to facilitate agricultural and disaster 

assessments, into an easy-to-use, web-based environment. GADAS provides analysts with a wide variety 

of routine geospatial products (maps, charts, tables) they require for comprehensive situational 

investigations and recurring assessments. GADAS can be accessed directly at 

(https://geo.fas.usda.gov/GADAS/index.html) or through (https://www.ipad.fas.usda.gov).

GADAS will help USDA/FAS remain a global leader in the use of location-based technologies for 

agricultural monitoring and global food security intelligence. The system combines daily weather, climate, 

crop conditions, satellite imagery, and other geospatial data with custom-built applications that quickly 

support the visual comparison of agricultural production-related data. GADAS is also designed to provide 

hourly updates of natural disasters (cyclone tracking, drought evolution, flooding impacts) as well as tools 

for rapid pre- and post-disaster agricultural assessments. Web-based GIS improves collaboration between 

teams in FAS working around the world.

For questions, please contact Lisa Colson at lisa.colson@usda.gov.

Figure 3. GADAS home page 
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Production, Supply and Distribution (PSD) Online

USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) PSD Online provides reports and the option for custom 

queries for data on production, supply, and distribution of those agricultural commodities and commodity 

aggregates published in the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate (WASDE) Report, and for 

the U.S. and key producing and consuming countries and aggregated regions, going back to 1960. 

The international portion of the data is updated with input from agricultural attachés stationed at U.S. 

embassies around the world, FAS commodity analysts, and country and commodity analysts with the 

Economic Research Service (ERS). The U.S. domestic component is updated with input from analysts in 

FAS, ERS, the National Agricultural Statistical Service, and the Farm Service Agency. Interagency work 

on the database is carried out under the aegis of the World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB). 

The official USDA supply and distribution data is published monthly in: WAOB, WASDE; in the foreign 

agricultural commodity circular series issued by FAS; and in the regional situation and outlook reports 

and monthly commodity newsletters of ERS.

Users can access PSD online at https://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/app/index.html#/app/home.

For questions, please contact us at https://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/app/index.html#/app/contact.

Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS)

USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS) includes U.S. 

agricultural, fishery, and forestry trade statistics dating from the inception of the harmonized coding 

system in 1989 to present. The database is continuously updated. U.S. trade data are updated monthly 

according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s reporting system. In March 2022, FAS included revised commodity 

codes in the GATS database based on the release of the World Customs Organization’s (WCO) 7th edition 

updates to the Harmonized System (HS). Every five years, the WCO replaces, redefines, and recategorizes HS codes adapting to current trade patterns and recognizing new products. The changes can 

be found in the Code Changes page in the GATS website. Users can access the GATS homepage at 

https://apps.fas.usda.gov/gats/default.aspx.

For questions, please contact Jason Carver (Jason.Carver@usda.gov) or Alex Beckman 

(Alex.Beckman@usda.gov). 

FAS Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) 

USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) data API portal provides users the ability to obtain 

programmatic access to publicly available agricultural commodity data from the Global Agricultural 

Trade System (GATS), Production, Supply & Distribution (PSD), and Export Sales Report (ESR) 

databases. 

The FAS Open Data Services can be found at https://apps.fas.usda.gov/opendataweb/home. 

For technical questions, please contact the FAS Web Admin Team at FASWebAdminTeam@usda.gov.

FAS – U.S. Agricultural Export Yearbook

The 2021 Agricultural Export Yearbook was published on the FAS website on April 14, 2022. The 

yearbook provides a statistical summary of U.S. agricultural commodity exports to the world and the 

United States’ primary trading partners. The 2021 Yearbook can be found at 

https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/2021-agricultural-export-yearbook. 
8

All U.S. export data found within the Yearbook are collected and published by the U.S. Census Bureau of 

the U.S. Department of Commerce. Foreign country export data are sourced from the reporting countries’ 

national statistical agencies as reported through Trade Data Monitor (TDM). The 2021 U.S. Agricultural 

Export Yearbook consists of two sections: 1) commodity exports, and 2) country of destination exports. 

The Yearbook utilized FAS product groups as defined in FAS’ Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS)

using the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) at the ten-digit level and aggregated into classifications that 

include the primary commodity and its derivatives. FAS has titled these product groups as “BICO (HS10).” BICO is an FAS designation that stands for Bulk, Intermediate & Consumer Oriented goods. 

The 13 Yearbook product groups or commodity aggregations are based on the United States’ largest export 

categories. The country Yearbook pages include the United States’ top fifteen export destinations. Each

commodity and country page includes a list of drivers that influenced exports, market conditions affecting 

supply and demand, and policy and market access issues that impact the United States’ ability to export.

Agricultural Tariff Tracker

To help exporters obtain information about tariff reductions resulting from free trade agreements (FTAs), 

FAS launched the Agricultural Tariff Tracker in 2013. The Ag Tariff Tracker has tariff, tariff rate quota 

(TRQ), and safeguard information for the United States’ existing free trade agreements with 11 FTA 

partners. In 2019, terms of the U.S.– Japan Trade agreement were added to the Ag Tariff Tracker. 

This tool is available at https://apps.fas.usda.gov/agtarifftracker/Home/Search on the Trade Policy/Trade 

Agreements topic page of the FAS website: https://www.fas.usda.gov/topics/trade-agreements. 

For questions, please contact Jason Carver (Jason.Carver@usda.gov).
 

9 

United States Department of Agriculture 

WORLD AGRICULTURAL OUTLOOK BOARD

Questions about World Agricultural Outlook Board programs may be directed to Mark Jekanowski, Chairman, WAOB, 

Mail Stop 3812, South Building, USDA, Washington, D.C. 20250-3812; Mark.Jekanowski@usda.gov. 

The World Agricultural Outlook Board’s (WAOB) primary mission is to provide reliable and objective 

economic forecasts for farmers and other participants in the food and fiber system. Functions include 

coordinating USDA forecasts of domestic and international agriculture; providing economic analysis 

related to global commodity markets; monitoring markets and agricultural weather; and disseminating 

relevant commodity market information.

Mark Jekanowski, WAOB Chairman, oversees the creation of the World Agricultural Supply and 

Demand Estimates (WASDE) report and chairs the Program Committee for USDA’s annual Agricultural 

Outlook Forum. Former positions include Deputy Director for the commodity outlook program at USDA’s 

Economic Research Service (ERS), Chief of the Crops Branch at ERS, and Senior Vice President at 

Informa Economics. 

The Interagency Commodity Estimates Committees (ICECs), chaired by WAOB senior economists, clear 

all USDA commodity outlook reports to ensure consistency with official USDA estimates. The 

committees develop supply and demand estimates for the United States, over 100 individual countries, 

and global totals. Four USDA agencies are represented on the committees: Economic Research Service, 

Foreign Agricultural Service, Farm Service Agency, and the Agricultural Marketing Service. 

Report Usage: Each year, WAOB issues 12 monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates

(WASDE) reports; and publishes 52 weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin reports. On average, the WASDE 

is accessed by over 100,000 users worldwide each month. It is one of USDA’s Principal Federal Economic 

Indicators and directly impacts commodity markets. The WASDE report is available at: 

https://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde. 

USDA Baseline: WAOB oversees the annual publication of the inter-agency USDA Agricultural 

Long-term Projections. The Long-term Projections report provides a conditional long run scenario about 

what would be expected to happen to the global agricultural economy under a continuation of current farm 

legislation and other specific assumptions. These reports are an important source of strategic planning 

information used in formulating the President’s budget and for decision-making by agricultural producers, 

agribusiness leaders, and policy officials. The latest edition of the report and data tables (Projections to 

2031) can be found at https://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity-markets/baseline. Selected tables from the 

upcoming USDA Agricultural Projections to 2032 report were released November 7 and can be found at 

www.usda.gov/oce/commodity-markets/baseline. They are also available from the Economic Research 

Service Baseline Database, which can be found at https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/agriculturalbaseline-database/. 
10

Mark Brusberg, Chief Meteorologist, is a key contributor to, and main point of contact for, droughtrelated activities involving the Department and other Federal Partners, especially the National Oceanic 

and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Mr. Brusberg serves on the Executive Council of the NOAAled National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and leads several projects related to the 

work done by NIDIS and other drought-oriented groups on behalf of the Department. He currently serves 

in a leadership capacity on the National Drought Resilience Partnership (NDRP), an intergovernmental 

task force offering leadership in the coordination and administration of activities designed to help mitigate 

the impacts of drought on vulnerable segments of the Nation’s economy. He is also a lead USDA 

representative to the Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological Services (ICAMS).

Mr. Brusberg chairs USDA’s Combined Drought and Water Management Team, a venue for other 

agencies within the Department to share information and coordinate responses on projects and programs 

involving drought and water resources. As the Departmental lead on Drought, he facilitates partnerships 

between USDA and other groups, including the NDRP, NIDIS, ICAMS, and the National Drought 

Mitigation Center (NDMC). 

Agricultural Weather Monitoring and Assessments: WAOB’s staff of meteorologists generate timely 

weather and crop assessments in support of the monthly Crop Production and WASDE reports issued by 

National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and WAOB, respectively. The meteorologists also 

provide weekly updates of crop weather to USDA Radio and often appear on local and national radio and 

television broadcasts. As recognized experts within the Department, they are often tasked with attending 

Capitol Hill briefings and reviewing legislation and testimony and contribute assessments and products to 

the USDA blog and other publications. Another key duty is to meet with foreign delegations and domestic 

groups regarding the process of using weather and climate products to produce operational agricultural 

assessments. WAOB meteorologists publish the Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin (WWCB) located at 

https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/wwcb.pdf, which provide the public with weekly 

assessments of global agricultural weather. Data and products are supplied to the WWCB by NASS and 

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, through a formal agreement establishing the Joint Agricultural 

Weather Facility. The WWCB averaged over 10,000 downloads per week in FY21 from the USDA site, 

and additional downloads from the Cornell site. On a rotating basis, WAOB meteorologists prepare the 

weekly U.S. Drought Monitor and the monthly North American Drought Monitor. WAOB continues to 

engage our international counterparts and lends support to activities led by the World Meteorological 

Organization and Global Water Partnership. WAOB weather products can be found at: 

https://www.usda.gov/oce/weather-drought-monitor. 

Agricultural Outlook Forum 2023: The Agricultural Outlook Forum (AOF) is USDA’s largest and 

premiere annual gathering. The breadth and timeliness of the AOF programs have consistently drawn a 

diverse group of participants including producers, processors, policymakers, government officials, and 

non-governmental organizations, to discuss current and emerging issues. After holding the Forum 

virtually for two years, the AOF 2023 will be held in person in Arlington Virginia and all sessions will 

also be livestreamed on a virtual platform. During the Forum, USDA’s chief economist will unveil the 

Department’s initial 2023 forecasts for the U.S. agricultural economy, commodity markets, and foreign 

trade for the new marketing year and discuss the farm income situation. 

Registration is now open on the Forum website https://www.usda.gov/oce/ag-outlook-forum. 
11

INTERAGENCY COMMODITY ESTIMATES COMMITTEES

Note: The World Agricultural Outlook Board reviews and approves the World Agricultural Supply and 

Demand Estimates (WASDE) report. The Board’s analysts chair the Interagency Commodity 

Estimates Committees (ICECs) that prepare the monthly report. 

Wheat: Mark Simone, ICEC Chair, WAOB, mark.simone@usda.gov

Andrew Sowell, ERS; Rachel Trego, FAS; Bruce McWilliams, FPAC.

Rice: Mark Simone, ICEC Chair, WAOB, mark.simone@usda.gov

Nathan Childs, ERS; Rachel Trego, FAS.

Feed Grains: Michael Jewison, ICEC Chair, WAOB, michael.jewison2@usda.gov

Todd Hubbs, ERS; Kevin Min, FAS; Jacob Vuillemin, FPAC.

Oilseeds: Keith Menzie, ICEC Chair, WAOB, keith.menzie@usda.gov

Maria Bukowski, ERS; Agata Kingsbury, FAS; Gustavo Ferreira, FPAC.

Cotton: Stephen MacDonald, ICEC Chair, WAOB, stephen.macdonald3@usda.gov

Leslie Meyer, ERS; Graham Soley, FAS; Kent Lanclos, FPAC.

Sugar: Stephen Haley, ICEC Chair, WAOB, stephen.haley2@usda.gov

Vida Abadam, ERS; Souleymane Diaby, FAS; Barbara Fecso, FPAC.

Meat Animals: Shayle Shagam, ICEC Chair, WAOB, shayle.shagam@usda.gov

Sherry Wise, AMS; Mildred Haley, ERS; John Brower, FAS; Georgi Gabrielyan, FPAC.

Poultry: Shayle Shagam, ICEC Chair, WAOB, shayle.shagam@usda.gov

Peyton Ferrier, AMS; Grace Grossen, ERS; Claire Mezoughem, FAS; 

Georgi Gabrielyan, FPAC.

Dairy: Shayle Shagam, ICEC Chair, WAOB, shayle.shagam@usda.gov

Carolyn Liebrand, AMS; Angel Teran, ERS; Jeffery Dwyer, FAS; Georgi Gabrielyan, FPAC.

In 2023 the WASDE report will be released on Jan. 12, Feb. 8, Mar.8 Apr. 11, 

May 12, Jun. 9, Jul. 12, Aug. 11, Sep.12, Oct. 12, Nov.9, and Dec.8
12

NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS SERVICE

STATISTICS DIVISION

What’s New and What’s Changing?

NASS Mission Statement:

To provide timely, accurate, and useful statistics in service to U.S. Agriculture

Crops

NASS published the first-ever National Hemp Report in February 2022. This landmark report provides 

needed data about the hemp industry to assist producers, regulatory agencies, state governments, 

processors, and other key industry entities. The Domestic Hemp Production Program, established in the 

Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill), allows for the cultivation of hemp under certain 

conditions. The report includes information on the acreage, yield, production, price, and value of hemp in 

the United States. Plans are underway for the next report, which will be published April 19, 2023.

Beginning in March 2022, NASS began livestreaming all major crop related briefings for the Secretary of 

Agriculture. This includes each monthly Crop Production report, the quarterly Grain Stocks reports, 

March Prospective Plantings, June Acreage, and the Small Grains Annual Summary in September. Crop 

Production briefings also include presentations of data from the World Agricultural Supply and Demand 

Estimates report released by the Office of the Chief Economist’s World Agricultural Outlook Board 

(WAOB). These live events begin five minutes after NASS reports are released to the public and can be 

found on NASS's YouTube Channel along with recordings of past streams.

NASS made several enhancements to the annual Floriculture program, including expanding to a 50-State 

program and adding 25 new crops. Additionally, NASS published sales as retail, wholesale, and total, 

rather than the previous practice of converting non-wholesale prices to a wholesale equivalent. This 

change provided estimates more directly related to the information provided by producers. These changes 

resulted from a thorough review following the 2019 Census of Horticultural Specialties. The Floriculture 

data were published on May 25, 2022. 

In July 2022, NASS published the first Methodology and Quality Measures report for Floriculture since 

2016. This report contains details concerning the survey methodology as well as quality metrics that 

describe the performance data for all surveys contributing to the published estimates. Plans are to publish 

this report annually following the Floriculture report.

Beginning in 2022, the final U.S. marketing year average prices for dry edible beans are published in the 

September Agricultural Prices report, two months earlier than was previously done.

Beginning with the 2022 crop season, NASS will resume the December forecast of pecan production as 

well as the preliminary acreage, yield, production, and price estimates published in January for pecans. 

These estimates are funded through an external funding agreement which was resumed by the funding 

entity after a year where funding was not provided.
13

NASS is moving the Grain Crushings and Co-Products Production Annual Summary report from March 

to September beginning in 2023. This report incorporates updated previous year data from NASS surveys 

as well as data obtained from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). EIA has begun publishing 

annual revisions to the previous crop year in August, therefore the new NASS release timeframe will allow 

these critical data to be included in the revision process.

NASS is permanently moving the in-season updating of acreage estimates for corn, sorghum, soybeans, 

and sugarbeets to the September Crop Production report. The necessary data, including survey data, 

satellite-based data, and the latest information from USDA’s Farm Service Agency and Risk Management 

Agency, are sufficiently complete to support the review one month earlier than was previously done. 

Livestock

On January 12, 2022, NASS Broiler Hatchery report discontinued the percent of the previous year values 

in the publication. Data from Quick Stats may be used to derive the percentages. 

Beginning on February 22, 2022, the Poultry Slaughter publication, for the “Condemned Post-Mortem by 

Cause and Type” tables on pages 6 and 9 will include a new category “Unknown”. This change aligns the 

NASS report with the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (FSIS) poultry systems. Previous month’s 

data is published in the same format for comparability purposes. The “Total” category will no longer be 

published. Data may be added to derive the cause totals.

On March 30, 2022, NASS livestreamed the Secretary of Agriculture’s data report briefing for the first 

time on the Hogs and Pigs report at 3:05 pm. All future Hogs and Pigs reports and Cattle reports will be 

livestreamed. 

On October 28, 2022, NASS reinstated the Cost of Pollination survey and data will be released on 

January 11, 2023. 

Environmental, Economics and Demographics 

On April 28, 2022, Local Food Marketing Practices was released. This was the second release in the data 

series that was last conducted in 2015. This study provides data on the marketing of locally and regionally 

produced agricultural food products, as directed under the 2018 Farm Bill. The briefing is available on 

NASS’s YouTube channel.

The Cash Rents county level data was released on August 26, 2022. NASS was directed through the 

“Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008” and amended by the “Agricultural Act of 2014” to collect 

cash rents data for use by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) in program administration. This is the second 

year that Bayesian small area models will be used for county-level rented acre totals and rental rates.

On October 28, 2022, the Conservation Practices Adoption Motivation Survey (CPAM) highlights were 

released. CPAM is a two-year cooperative effort with NRCS to measure farmers’ and ranchers’ 

conservation practices adoption behaviors and adoption reasons on cropland, grazing land, forest land and 

concentrated livestock feeding operations. The focus of the 2022 survey was crops and livestock 

conservation practices, while the 2024 survey will focus on grazing and forest land on farms.

On November 23, 2022, the Farm Labor data will be released. This will be the second year that 

coefficients of variation associated with model-based estimates will be published.
14

On December 15, 2022, the Organics data will be released. The 2021 Organic Survey will be conducted 

under the authority of the Census of Agriculture Act of 1997. The primary purpose of the Organic Survey 

is to provide acreage, inventory, production, value of sales and sales outlets and production practices on 

certified organic farms. The Organics release will provide comprehensive data at the State and National 

level for organic crops, livestock, and marketing and production practices. The last release was on 

October 22, 2020. The briefing will stream on NASS’s YouTube channel at 12:05 p.m. ET.

Census of Agriculture Program 

In June, NASS conducted the Agricultural Coverage Evaluation Survey (ACES). ACES is a separate and 

vital pre-screener to the census of agriculture and is used to update and improve the census mail list 

(CML). Extensive efforts are directed toward developing a CML to include all farms in the U.S. However, 

some farms are not on the list. NASS constructs a Not on the Mail List (NML) to estimate under-coverage 

associated with the census of agriculture. NASS also uses the ACES screener to identify minority and 

socially disadvantaged farmers, to ensure they will be properly represented in the 2022 Census of 

Agriculture.

In September, NASS finalized the Census Mail List (CML) in preparation for the 2022 Census of 

Agriculture. The final ag screener, the National Agricultural Classification Survey, was collected and 

processed for over 1,100,000 potential operations. This successful effort resulted in the addition of over 

200,000 potential farms to the census mail list. Equally important, these efforts eliminated over 300,000 

respondents reporting no agricultural activity. The improved quality of the CML will result in more 

efficient data collection for the 2022 Census of Agriculture. 

In November, NASS will begin data collection for the 2022 Census of Agriculture. Initially, nearly 

3 million farms and ranches will be invited to report online as NASS continues to leverage its online 

reporting instrument. The online instrument capitalizes on responsive web-design technology to allow 

respondents to provide their information using mobile devices, such as tablets and smart phones. The 

online tool also streamlines reporting which will provide the respondent the added benefit of a more 

customized instrument based on the types of crops and livestock their operation produces. And for the 

first time, NASS intends to provide online respondents with access to select data that they have previously 

reported in a recent NASS survey. Following the initial invitation to respond online, NASS will begin 

mailing paper questionnaires to producers in December. 

Modernization 

USDA NASS is committed to high standards of customer service and making it easy for farmers, ranchers, 

and data users to interact with us. NASS is modernizing their online systems to improve the customer 

experience around reporting data and accessing NASS official federal agricultural data and reports. We 

are making accurate data available on schedule in ways that customers like yourself have told us they 

want. 

NASS has continued its ongoing efforts to modernize its customer interfaces, making responding to 

surveys and accessing NASS data and reports faster, friendlier, and easier. This modernization effort also 

allows NASS to work more efficiently. Modernization will be focused in two main areas, Data Collection 

and Data Dissemination.
15

Data Collection - NASS recently released the new Respondent Portal and all new data collections 

now flow through this modern entry point. Immediate benefits of the portal are 

• Streamlined authentication process provides a convenient, central point to respond to all NASS 

surveys. 

• Creating and using a user account allows respondents to see past survey responses.

Incremental development and improvements over the next few years will further meet customer 

expectations, such as 

• Improve performance and speed of the portal and offer additional options for reporting data to 

NASS including an upload feature.

• Providing a customized digital experience designed around the user’s needs and behaviors. 

Farmers and ranchers will be able to build and save custom homepages to compare their data 

with other (national, state, county) data. 

• Integration with USDA’s Farmers.gov website, allowing farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses 

to expand their access to multiple USDA agencies’ information to make decisions for their 

operation that are fact based and data driven.

Data Dissemination - In 2022, the new Data Dissemination System is planning for a roll-out. A new 

Dairy release landing page is planned to replace the current paper-based releases. A new secure, 

cloud-based dissemination system is being developed and the first release will be Milk Production in 

early 2023. Later in 2023, these items are scheduled for roll-out: Economics and Field Crops, more 

livestock commodities, and aquaculture. In 2024, horticulture, floriculture, demographics, poultry, and 

fruits, nuts and vegetables are planned for production. The data will be formatted for efficient query 

capabilities and presented in modern, dynamic pages.

NASS is committed to providing timely, accurate, and useful agricultural data that help all data users 

in their work. 

NASS Links

Visit the NASS website (www.nass.usda.gov) and follow us on Twitter @usda_nass to stay up to date.
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ECONOMIC RESEARCH SERVICE
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FARM SERVICE AGENCY

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) supports farms and 

farming communities with programs including disaster relief, conservation programs, commodity price 

guarantee programs, and loan programs. Since the spring data meeting FSA has been delivering a host of 

core Farm Bill programs and continued support of pandemic related programs. 

Recent program updates include:

Immediate Help for Over 13,000 Distressed USDA Farm Loan Borrowers

Distressed borrowers with qualifying USDA farm loans have already received nearly $800 million 

in assistance, as part of the $3.1 billion in assistance for distressed farm loan borrowers provided 

through Section 22006 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA directed USDA to expedite 

assistance to distressed borrowers of direct or guaranteed loans administered by USDA’s FSA 

whose operations face financial risk.

October’s announcement kicks off a process to assist distressed farm loan borrowers using several 

complementary approaches, with the goal of keeping them farming, removing obstacles that 

currently prevent many of these borrowers from returning to farming, and improving the way that 

USDA approaches borrowing and servicing. Through this assistance, USDA is focused on 

generating long-term stability and success for distressed borrowers.

Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage Programs

Agricultural producers can now change election and enroll in Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) 

and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs for the 2023 crop year, two key safety net programs 

offered by the USDA. Signup began October 17th, and producers have until March 15, 2023, to 

enroll in these two programs. Additionally, FSA has started issuing payments totaling more than 

$255 million to producers with 2021 crops that have triggered payments through ARC or PLC.

In 2021, producers signed nearly 1.8 million ARC or PLC contracts, and 251 million out 

of 273 million base acres were enrolled in the programs.  For the 2022 crop year, signed contracts 

surpassed 1.8 million to be paid in the fall of 2023 if a payment triggers.

Since ARC and PLC were first authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill and reauthorized by the 

2018 Farm Bill, these safety-net programs have paid out more than $34.9 billion to producers of 

covered commodities.

Dairy Margin Coverage

Dairy producers can now enroll for 2023 coverage through the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) 

Program, an important safety net program from the USDA that helps producers manage changes 

in milk and feed prices. Last year, USDA’s FSA took steps to improve coverage, especially for 

small- and mid-sized dairies, including offering a new Supplemental DMC program and updating 

its feed cost formula to better address retroactive, current, and future feed costs. These changes 

continue to support producers through this year’s signup.

Emergency Relief Payments

The Farm Service Agency has processed more than 280,580 applications for the new Emergency 

Relief Program (ERP). USDA has made approximately $7.09 billion in payments, to date, to 
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commodity and specialty crop producers to help offset eligible losses from qualifying 2020 and 

2021 natural disasters. By breaking-down agency barriers, using existing data across USDA and 

pre-filled applications, FSA in cooperation with the Risk Management Agency (RMA) has been 

able to expediently provide economic relief and save producers and staff over a million hours of 

time.

The efforts to streamline, improve responsiveness, and work across traditional agency-borders 

goes beyond the recent ERP process. FSA mailed pre-filled ERP applications to commodity 

producers covered by federal crop insurance in late May, and has since paid $6 billion to producers 

with eligible losses . Pre-filled ERP applications were mailed to producers with Noninsured Crop 

Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) coverage. FSA has issued $35.9 million in payments to 

producers with eligible losses. NAP-related ERP payments were not factored and are being made 

in full from the start, to speed and target assistance to small and underserved producers that 

commonly rely on NAP coverage. Also, earlier this year, staff processed more than 

100,000 payments through the Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) and paid eligible 

producers more than $601.3 million in 2021 for grazing losses within days of program 

announcement.

A new public-facing dashboard on the ERP webpage has information on ERP payments that can 

be sorted by crop type – specialty or non-specialty, specific commodities and state. FSA updates 

the dashboard on Monday of each week.

Grassland Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Signup

More than 3.1 million acres from agricultural producers and private landowners have been enrolled 

through this year’s CRP Grassland Signup, the highest in history. This program allows producers 

and landowners to continue grazing and haying practices while protecting grasslands and 

promoting plant and animal biodiversity and conservation, and it’s part of the Biden-Harris 

administration’s broader effort to address climate change and conserve natural resources.

Nationwide, this year’s Grassland CRP signup surpassed last year’s 2.5 million acres by 22%. So 

far this year, producers have enrolled 2 million acres through General Signup and more than 

464,000 acres have been submitted through Continuous CRP Signup. This means about 5.6 million 

acres are entering CRP in 2023, surpassing the 3.9 million acres expiring this year.

On-Farm Food Safety Expenses for Specialty Crop

On-Farm Food Safety Expenses for Specialty Crop Program plans to provide up to $200 million 

in assistance for specialty crop producers who incur eligible on-farm food safety program expenses 

to obtain or renew a food safety certification in calendar years 2022 or 2023. USDA’s new Food 

Safety Certification for Specialty Crops (FSCSC) program will help to offset costs for specialty 

crop producers to comply with regulatory requirements and market-driven food safety certification 

requirements. These requirements are part of USDA’s broader effort to transform the food system 

to create a more level playing field for small and medium producers and a more balanced, equitable 

economy for everyone working in food and agriculture. 

Specialty crop operations began applying for assistance for eligible expenses related to a 2022 

food safety certificate, issued on or after June 21, 2022. Signups began June 27, 2022. USDA is 

delivering FSCSC to provide critical assistance for specialty crop operations, with an emphasis on 

equity in program delivery while building on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and 

supply chain disruptions. Secretary Vilsack made the announcement from Hollis, N.H., where he 
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toured a local family-owned farm and highlighted USDA’s efforts to help reduce costs for farmers 

and support local economies by providing significant funding to cut regulatory costs and increase 

market opportunities for farmers across the nation.
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AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE

The mission of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) 

is to facilitate the competitive and efficient marketing of agricultural products.

USDA DATA USERS FALL MEETING 2022

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) administers programs that create domestic and international 

marketing opportunities for U.S. producers of food, fiber, and specialty crops. AMS also provides the 

agriculture industry with valuable services to ensure the quality and availability of wholesome food for 

consumers across the country.

Nearly 4,000 AMS professionals work every day to support the country’s diverse agricultural operations, 

which range from individual farmers to international businesses and employ 1 in 12 people. AMS services 

and its millions of dollars in annual grant investments also create opportunities by supporting economic 

development in small towns and rural communities that stand as the backbone of American values.

Much of the agency’s support for agriculture is provided through commodity-specific efforts, such as its 

Dairy; Specialty Crops; Livestock and Poultry; and Cotton and Tobacco Programs. AMS also oversees 

the National Organic Program; Science and Technology Program; and the Transportation and Marketing 

Program. AMS also provides regulatory oversight for over 20 research and promotion programs and 

enforces other Federal regulations such as the Packers and Stockyards Act, the Perishable Agricultural 

Commodities Act (PACA) and the Seed Act.

CURRENT ISSUES OF INTEREST

My Market News

The Market Analysis & Reporting Services (MARS) and its public facing website, My Market News and 

related API continue to expand its offerings to data users in 2022. 

Market News continues to implement Market Analysis and Reporting Services’ (MARS) advanced 

technical capabilities and additional market types. In FY 2022, MARS and its public facing website, My 

Market News, continued to add more market types and reports to those available to the public. Through 

My Market News, users can now access data for over 697 unique market reports disseminated from over 

45 Market News offices across the country. Currently, users can access dairy, cotton quality, truck rates, 

trends, poultry, egg inventory, auction livestock, video auctions, direct hay, auction hay, direct livestock, 

tobacco, rice, feedstuffs and grain market information through My Market News. Market information for 

retail, national feeder cattle summary, bioenergy, international imports, and exports, and the Specialty 
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Crops market types of terminals, shipping point, and movement will transition to My Market News by the 

end of 2022. 

Additionally, through the MARS and LMR Application Programming Interfaces (API), customers can 

now access data from over 836 unique market reports. The APIs allows users to automatically download 

data in custom formats. After a one-time setup, the API will continue to deliver the requested information 

to the user in the established format without further action. Other updates that have been implemented on 

the site over the past year include the functionality that allows users to identify corrected data sets both by 

report and through the My Market News API and Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR) API. 

In February 2022, AMS introduced the USDA Market News Mobile Application v1.0 (app) with free iOS 

and Android versions available to download through the Apple and Google Play stores. The App was 

updated in June to v.2.0 to expand access across all commodity groups. The app gives users instant access 

to nearly 1,500 reports covering conventional and organic livestock, poultry, grain, dairy, cotton, and 

specialty crop market reports. The app lets users search for current and historical reports by location, State, 

or commodity. Users can also add reports to their favorites for easier access, share reports via text or 

email, subscribe to reports, and share the aggregated data behind reports via email. The app provides realtime notifications when a new report is published without any delays. This new tool is part of a multi-year 

initiative to improve the Market News customer experience by providing easier access to data through the 

latest media technologies.

Federal-State Cooperation

AMS Market News has Federal-State Cooperative Agreements with 30 states for commodity market 

reporting activities. Beginning in FY 2023, these agreements were converted into the USDA ezFedGrants 

(eFG) Grants and Agreements System. The eFG system is used for processing Federal financial assistance 

transactions and provides significant efficiencies to all users managing grant and agreement portfolios.

AMS worked closely with its State partners to ensure a successful transition to the new system. These 

cooperative working relationships enable resources at the Federal and State levels to be leveraged to 

expand the breadth, depth, and dissemination of market reporting to the benefit of the industry and 

information users. State reporters cover livestock auction and grain elevator markets, and other local 

reporting activities, such as farmers markets, that would otherwise be costly and more difficult to cover 

using Federal resources alone. 

Organic Market Reporting

The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (Act) re-authorized $5 million to USDA for the collection and 

reporting of data on the production and marketing of organic agricultural products. As required by the 

Act, USDA collects and distributes reporting on prices of organic agricultural products; develops and 

implements surveys on organic production, handling, and distribution; and conducts analysis on the data 

for publication in reports. Of the $5 million allocation, $3.5 million was provided to the Agricultural 

Marketing Service (AMS) to support organic production and market data activities.

AMS is currently engaged in a number of key activities to support organic production and market data 

activities, as required by the Act, under the Organic Data Initiative (ODI). Key among these is the 

collection and distribution of market information for organic and conventionally produced agricultural 

products. Each business day, AMS Market News reporters collect price, demand, and movement 

information and make it available online at no cost to ensure market transparency and assist in the 

marketing and distribution of agricultural commodities. AMS Market News currently reports over 
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240 organic commodities, and tracks and reports organic markets at three main levels – shipping point or 

point of entry (for imports), wholesale, and retail. Reporting of organic commodities at shipping point 

usually includes tracking the volume of movement, which consists of domestic shipments or crossings 

from Mexico/imports from other countries. Market News provides some comprehensive reports for the 

organic sector, such as the daily National Specialty Crops Organic Summary. AMS has a webpage 

showcasing Market News organic reports including a Weekly Retail Organic Price Comparison Report

that shows the price differences between organic and conventional products to assist stakeholders in 

analysis of commodity sales and consumers’ willingness to pay for organic products.

In FY 2023, AMS continues to expand its outreach and educational efforts to the organic sector to promote 

the availability and usage of the existing market information and resources, identify new data needs, and 

build stronger relationships with stakeholders.

Market Information Organization of the Americas/International Collaboration

AMS Market News serves as the chair of the Market Information Organization of the Americas (MIOA), 

a cooperation network of institutions from 33 countries that operate like Market News. These institutions 

track and report major markets within their nations to ensure the availability of reliable information for 

their agro-industrial complex, relevant ministries, and government agencies. MIOA works to harmonize 

efforts, identify and share best practices, and support trade and economic development through the 

availability of critical market data. MIOA supports the concept that timely and unbiased market 

information helps provide market transparency – a basic public good. MIOA and AMS Market News have 

partnered to create the MIOA Toolbox, a five-part series of modules available in English, Spanish, and 

Portuguese. This series has provided hundreds of leading market information specialists, data analysts, 

and various strategic partners from the 33 member countries with key information on the strategies, new 

tools and good practices to improve market reporting

across the Americas. The five modules are titled:

• Components of a Successful MIS

• Value of and Strategies for Accurate Market Information 

• Market Reporter: Profile and Good Practices for Success

• Good Practices for MIS in Preparation for Emergencies

• Outreach, Education and Promotion for MIS

AMS Market News, along with the other data agencies of USDA, is partnering with the Foreign 

Agricultural Service (FAS) to deliver capacity building programs in the Dominican Republic and the State 

of Maharashtra, India. AMS is drawing upon the MIOA Toolbox for these training programs for market 

information specialists. Information specialists from other countries have sat in on these advanced training 

programs, greatly increasing the reach and impact of these programs. Additional projects for improving 

Market Information Systems with guidance from AMS Market News are also underway in Ecuador, Peru, 

and Paraguay.

Livestock, Poultry, and Grain Market News Reporting

Livestock, Poultry, and Grain Market News (LPGMN) continues to focus much of its efforts on improving

our customers’ experience by providing greater access to LPGMN data through more modern tools, 

including transitioning market data and reports to My Market News. The Consolidated Appropriations 

Act, 2022 (Act), passed in March 2022, extended LMR authorization through September 30, 2022 and the 

Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2023 extended LMR 

reauthorization through December 16, 2022. The March Appropriations Act provided funding to the 
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Livestock, Poultry, and Grain Market News Division to develop and maintain a Cattle Contracts Library 

(CCL) pilot program similar to the Swine Contract Library maintained by the Packers and Stockyards 

Division. Development of the CCL is underway and expected to be released publicly no later than 

September 30, 2023. 

Data users are encouraged to access the My Market News API, the LMR API, and the legacy LMR Web 

Service to consume LPGMN data more effectively, efficiently, and on demand. Data users can also access 

LMR report data through the XML Format link at the bottom of each PDF report, and through the LMR 

API. The LMR API offers access to all LMR, Dairy Mandatory, and Federal Milk Marking Order reports

and data. 

Cotton Market News Reporting

During the 2022-2023 cotton crop year, Cotton Market News is monitoring the quality of the crop and 

adding special reports to the to the Weekly Cotton Market Review as quality issues are identified. Cotton 

Quality Data files are available in My Market News. The weekly cotton quality data file contains 

classification information for all bales classed in a given week. The file contains data for Upland and Pima 

cotton. The identification includes the Cotton Program's Classing Office number or the two-digit State 

Code in which the bale was ginned, depending on the file accessed. The data does not contain individual 

bale identification (gin and bale number). This data can be used to produce statistical reports for various 

combinations of cotton quality information. Cotton Price Excel and CSV files are available in My Market 

News. Historical files continue to be loaded and files will be available going back to at least the 2014-2015 

marketing year. Additional Cotton Price datasets are available by request. E-mail CottonMN@usda.gov

or Barbara.Meredith@usda.gov if you are interested in Cotton Price datasets.

Dairy Market News Reporting

Dairy Market News (DMN) continues to enhance My Market News, improving access to information and 

data for the dairy industry. Class II, Class III, and Class IV weekly cream multiples and prices were added 

to the domestic East and West Fluid weekly regional reports. Enhancements to APIs at the My Market 

News landing pages are available, with updates made regularly to meet customer needs. API 

documentation is displayed on the homepage of each Dairy Market News report in the My Market News 

system. Dairy Market News reports will be transitioning to PDF format, from txt format, in the near future.

Reports of mandatory dairy product survey prices and Federal order statistics are published by the Dairy 

Market Information Branch (MIB) on the My Market News website, the AMS website, and Cornell’s 

USDA Economics, Statistics and Market Information System (ESMIS). The underlying data for these 

reports are available in Datamart and the associated API, both part of the Livestock Mandatory Reporting 

system. Sample API workbooks are also available on the My Market News website.

Specialty Crops Market News Reporting

Specialty Crops Market News (SCMN) added new packages, origins, and varieties to its market reports 

as they emerged in the marketplace, or in response to industry requests to report new products or enhance 

existing products. The National Retail Report – Specialty Crops has grown to be one of the mostly closed 

tracked reports published by Market News. SCMN tracks approximately 410 supermarket chains, with 

over 30,300 individual outlets. Overall, SCMN tracks over 785 unique specialty crop commodities at three 

market levels (retail, wholesale, and shipping point) plus the movement, which consists of domestic 

shipments, crossings from Mexico, and import volumes. To better meet specialized information needs, 
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the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement Seasonal Perishable Products Weekly Update, was created to 

highlight the seasonal market situation on several of the most widely imported specialty crops 

commodities, with additional commentary and market price and volume data visualizations.

SCMN gained access to the Automated Commercial Environment/International Trade Data System 

(ACE), implemented through the joint efforts of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), 

Homeland Security, and the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). SCMN transitioned to using the ACE 

system as the primary source of import data, starting with the northern border on January 2, 2020. On 

January 3, 2021, SCMN continued the transition to ACE for all other points and ports of entry, excluding 

Mexico Crossings through Nogales, Arizona. The ACE data using the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) 

codes is timelier, allowing SCMN to have daily reports for hundreds of commodities, and it reflects the 

more actual volumes, as it covers all ports and points of entry.

SCMN worked closely with industry leaders to request new HTS codes from the International Trade 

Commission (ITC) to increase the specificity of the ACE data and provide transparency for commodities 

that have significant economic value in the marketplace. Since July 2021, SCMN is responsible for the 

creation of 101 new HTS codes, 26 of which are organic. Currently, 31 commodities are being held in 

abeyance for the October 2022 ITC 484 (f) Committee meeting and more than a dozen additional 

commodities are being researched for the March 2023 submission.

Agricultural Transportation Open Data Visualization Platform – AgTransport

The AgTransport platform offers farmers, commodity analysts, elevator operators, shippers, and other 

stakeholders access to USDA data that can help them make timely market decisions about moving 

agricultural products across the country and around the world. This free, open data platform contains 

numerous datasets and dashboards about the four modes—rail, truck, barge, and ocean vessel—used to 

transport agricultural products.

AgTransport facilitates easy analytics. Users can gain personalized insight through interactive charts, and 

they can generate and save their own unique visualizations and data views that will be updated 

automatically over time. If they wish, users also can share their visualizations with others in the tool’s 

open data community. AgTransport makes data available in many different, open formats and 

automatically generates and maintains an Application Programming Interface (API) for each dataset.

There have been many new features added to the platform with the latest expansion in July. One feature 

helps users visualize data about international transport costs to better understand international trade 

competitiveness. New interactive datasets have been added related to highway infrastructure from the 

report, The Importance of Highways to U.S. Agriculture, released in December 2020. There is also an 

online version of the 2021 Compendium of Agricultural Transportation Research, which offers insight on 

all major transport modes by highlighting the main findings and methods from recent research between 

2015 and 2021.

Other features on the platform include: 

• Grain Transportation Cost Indicators and Global Competitiveness Dashboard with data on Brazil, 

Mexico, and Japan

• Interactive Rail Dashboard with expanded Data, Maps, and Analysis, featuring 14 years of Surface 

Transportation Board Public Waybill data in an easy-to-use, accessible format

• Agricultural Rail Service Metrics Dashboard
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• Barge Dashboard with additional rivers and locks added to the waterway Lock Performance 

Management Data

• Ocean Port Profiles Dashboard

• Bulk and Container Ocean Fleet Data

• Grain Trucking Indicators

• Refrigerated Truck Dashboard with Rates, Volumes, and Availability

• Dashboard for selected Grain Price and Basis Data

• Digitized Modal Share Analysis for Transportation of U.S. Grains

• Biofuels Dashboard, including Ethanol, Biodiesel, and DDGs
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U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

The U.S. Census Bureau provides information that tells the story of our changing economy. The Economic 

Indicators, Economic Census and our quarterly and annual economic surveys give Federal, state, and local 

governments, policy makers, and business and community leaders the information needed to make 

informed decisions that shape our economy.

The U.S. Census Bureau provides information that tells the story of our changing economy. The Economic 

Indicators, Economic Census and our quarterly and annual economic surveys give Federal, state, and local 

governments, policy makers, and business and community leaders the information needed to make 

informed decisions that shape our economy.

Issues of Interest to Data Users

1. Accessing Data from the U.S. Census Bureau

• USA Trade Online 

USA Trade Online is a dynamic data tool that gives users access to current and cumulative U.S. 

export and import data. With multiple data sets and capabilities, USA Trade Online can assist 

different types of customers from a wide range of industries and fields. This tool offers data by 

Harmonized System, North America Industry Classification System (NAICS), and the Department 

of Agriculture code. This powerful software allows users to create customized reports and colorful 

charts detailing international trade data at different levels. 

https://usatrade.census.gov/

• Monthly Trade Data in the Census Data API

The U.S. Census Bureau has detailed monthly international trade data in its Application 

Programming Interface (API). The Census Data API has international trade data from 2013 to 

present. The international trade statistics provide monthly and cumulative year-to-date export and 

import totals with multiple layers of detail. The statistics also include two datasets with U.S. 

exports and imports by Department of Agriculture code.

The Application Programming Interface provides researchers and developers free access to its 

demographic and economic data.

https://census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/international-trade.html
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• Global Market Finder (GMF)

The Global Market Finder is an interactive data visualization tool that paints a picture of the export 

market for a particular commodity. The user just needs to select the Schedule B code they are 

interested in and the tool will display all the countries that the U.S. exports to, shows value by 

method of transportation, and unit price. Users can drill down to specific countries and download 

the data that they have pulled. 

https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/export-markets.html

• Census Business Builder

The Census Business Builder (CBB) is a suite of services that provide selected demographic and 

economic data from the Census Bureau tailored to specific types of users in a simple to access and 

use format. The CBB includes: 

• Demographic, socioeconomic, and housing data from the American Community Survey 

• Business data from the County Business Patterns, Nonemployer Statistics, Economic 

Census, and Survey of Business Owners 

• Trade data on total imports and exports, broken out by mode of transportation (Air &

Vessel), for selected three- and four-digit agriculture, mining, and manufacturing NAICS 

codes at the national and state level. 

• Building Permits data at the county and place level 

In addition, it provides Agriculture data from the Census of Agriculture (USDA).

https://www.census.gov/data/data-tools/cbb.html

2. Principal Economic Indicators

The U.S. Census Bureau's Economic Indicators keep the world informed by providing the first official 

measures of the U.S. economy. Our Economic Indicator surveys provide monthly and quarterly data 

that are timely, reliable, and offer comprehensive measures of the U.S. economy. These surveys 

produce a variety of statistics covering construction, housing, international trade, retail trade, 

wholesale trade, services, and manufacturing. The survey data provide measures of economic activity 

that allow analysis of economic performance and inform business investment and policy decisions. 

The data can be accessed via the Economic Indicator Briefing Room and the Economic Indicator 

Database. 

• Economic Indicator Briefing Room

The Economic Indicator Briefing Room web site provides access to the latest data, full release 

reports, historical data, and time series and trend charts. census.gov/economic-indicators

• Economic Indicator Database

Select an economic indicator and customize your data selection. Ability to download the data to a 

spreadsheet and create your own time series charts. census.gov/econ/currentdata
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• For questions regarding Economic Indicators, please contact:

Ms. Stephanie Studds, Assistant Director of Economic Programs

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, DC 20233-6010

Phone: (301) 763-2633

Email: Stephanie.Lee.Studds@census.gov

3. International Trade

Each month, the U.S. Census Bureau releases the U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services

(FT900) report, which is one of the principal economic indicators for the United States. This report 

can be found along with other information on our website census.gov/trade

Webinars are archived at: https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/outreach/index.html

• 15 CFR PART 30 — Foreign Trade Regulations

For information on the FTR and filing requirements, please email emd.askregs@census.gov or use 

the International Trade Helpline number, 1-800-549-0595 and select option 3.

• Questionable data should be brought to our attention as soon as possible. Potential data errors 

caught early are easier to verify and improve the quality of data going forward. To request data 

verification, please contact Mr. Gregory Kondilas (gregory.kondilas@census.gov), Chief of our 

International Trade Indicator Micro Analysis Branch.

4. Other Economic Data from the U.S. Census Bureau

The Census Bureau produces economic data across the entire economy on a monthly, quarterly, 

yearly, and five-year basis, including industries related to agriculture. These industries can include: 

o NAICS 113 Forestry and Logging 

o NAICS 114 Fishing, Hunting and Trapping 

o NAICS 115 Support Activities for Agriculture and Forestry 

o NAICS 311 Food Manufacturing 

o NAICS 4244 Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers 

o NAICS 4245 Farm Product Raw Material Merchant Wholesalers 

o NAICS 445 Food and Beverage Stores 

• COVID-19 Data Hub

The U.S. Census Bureau's COVID-19 Hub contains demographic and economic data designed to help 

guide decision-making related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The interactive platform includes key 

demographic data from the American Community Survey and key data on businesses with one or more 

paid employees from the County Business Patterns program. In addition, the COVID-19 Data Hub 

brings together data from multiple Federal agencies including the USDA’s Emergency Food 

Assistance Program and private sector organizations. The hub was built in collaboration with ESRI 

and leverages many features of the ArcGIS platform and solution templates. 

https://covid19.census.gov/
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NOTES
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NOTES