2020 Data Users’ Meeting

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Statistics Service

Virtual Meeting

April 21, 2020

Table of Contents

Question & Answer Summary.......................................................................................................................1

Agricultural Marketing Service......................................................................................................................1

Foreign Agricultural Service ..........................................................................................................................6

World Agricultural Outlook Board ..............................................................................................................10

Economic Research Service.........................................................................................................................13

Census Bureau ............................................................................................................................................19

National Agricultural Statistics Service .......................................................................................................20

Energy Information Administration............................................................................................................33

Question & Answer Summary

The following is a summary of questions and answers from the Data Users’ Meeting. Material is 

organized by agency to match the order of the panelist remarks at the beginning of the 

meeting. Within agency the questions are order based on the time they were answered. There 

was not time to answer all questions but the unanswered questions were taken back and the 

appropriate agency has provided a response. Those questions that were not answered during 

the meeting are at the bottom for each agency and do not include a timestamp. 

Note: Questions and answers were lightly edited for readability.

Agricultural Marketing Service 

Question: Bill Lapp 01:12 PM 

I am having a programmer work to improve my efficiency of API downloads - who is the one 

contact (name phone number and email) within AMS that I can have this programmer reach 

out to?

Answer: Mike Lynch 01:29 PM 

Contact Jason Karwal at Jason.Karwal@usda.gov
Question: Robert Brown 01:55 PM 

For AMS. Since we suddenly now will never have access to TXT reports, a cheat sheet that 

matches up the SLUGS for the PDF reports with the corresponding TXT reports would be 

helpful.

Answer: Mike Lynch 02:01 PM 

There is a Report Master List maintained on our My Market News (MMN) site here 

https://mymarketnews.ams.usda.gov/general-resources

Question: C Watters 02:09 PM 

Has the agency considered including non-GM/conventional grain in surveys and reports?

Answer: Mike Lynch 02:17 PM 

Thanks for your question. We have been publishing a non-GMO grain report here 

https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/gl_gr112.txt.

Question: Gary Blumenthal 01:27 PM 

Could you repeat the link for downloading data rather than just the pdf?

Answer: Mike Lynch 02:22 PM

For help on the MARS API go to https://mpr.datamart.ams.usda.gov.

Question: Katherine Stone 02:19 PM 

Since the grains reports will be API accessible in a future iteration what is the short-term plan 

for these reports? as an example I am looking at AM_GR110 (txt slug), 2711 (new slug), TX 

High Plains Elevator Grain Bids.

Answer: Jason Karwal 03:29 PM 

The grain report will be transitioned to our API over the coming summer. if you would like 

details on specific reports please email me at jason.karwal@usda.gov.

Question: Katelyn McCullock 01:40 PM 

We really appreciate everyone at USDA. This is a critical time for the industry and the flow of 

market information is of the utmost importance. We have two comments/questions:

I find it disheartening that USDA AMS will not be able to honor its commitment to the 

industry to release text files through August. On the initial announcement to industry, USDA 

heard from numerous data users the burden this transition puts on data users. There has not 

been enough transition time -- only a fraction of the 6-month transition. The industry needs 
more time. This change has now happened overnight, we ask that you roll back the security 

patch for as long as possible.

Answer: Mike Lynch 02:40 PM

First of all, let me apologize to Katelyn and others. This was unexpected for us as well, as far 

as happening late last week, when we got the security patch information. Understand that 

these are applied by the Department. We really have no say over those. Now, that said, this 

is a project we’ve been working on for 4 or 5 years now, when we learned that text reports 

were no longer going to be supported. We started building the LMR reports, I believe 4 years 

ago, and it’s been an iterative process where we did release some and we continued offering 

text. We’ve always qualified our conversation with we’re going to try to offer them as long as 

possible, but we know that sometime there’s probably going to be some upgrade to the 

network or to the system or some patch that could disable the function of being able to 

create text reports from the programming that we have in our system. So, again, I apologize. 

We looked at rolling back the patch, and you could do it for a few days, we just don’t believe 

that’s worth the squeeze at the moment. We believe we’re farther ahead by helping people 

get on board, helping them set up their data strings with the API and we’re going to work 

through that. We have not heard from that many people who have been thrown by this. 

There’s some we have, and we have been able to point them to where they need to go to get 

the PDF report, set up their feed, and they’ve been able to do that. They’re likely not as 

heavy of a data user as LMIC is and we understand that, but we’ve also been right there 

working with LMIC and others to help them bridge this gap, help them get past this. But at 

this point in the game, no one working on the project has the authority to put the agency at 

odds with the Department over the application of a patch. So, at this point we’re going to 

continue working through to move people to the PDFs and to the API.

Question: Katelyn McCullock 01:40 PM 

We need a method for tracking corrections or re-issues of reports. I suggest a summary 

provided each week of reports that were released after the initial release so we can re-pull 

the data through the API.

Answer: Mike Lynch 02:43 PM

That is something we have been looking at. I think all USDA agencies, as we’ve been working 

to create these APIs, how do we handle corrections or changes in the data. We’ve had to set 

that aside at the moment just because we were developing the replacement for the 

dissemination tool and getting the LMR API launched. But once we have those out there, we 

should have all the pieces in place, but I’ll let Jason chime in if he has more details.
Answer: Jason Karwal 02:43 PM

Sure. Pretty much what Mike said is true. We’ve been transitioning a lot of separate pieces 

into the same system and now we have everything we need in place, and we’re looking at the 

possible solutions to this of identifying corrections in the API as well as providing a page that 

summarizes any reports that have been corrected within a certain timeframe. We’re still 

gathering some final requirements. We should be able to have at least the page that 

identifies which reports have been corrected out, at least for people to view and for public 

users to test by early summer as we move towards that. So, it is something that we have on 

our priority list and we understand how useful that can be, especially as we push more and 

more people to consuming the data through the APIs.

Answer: Mike Lynch 02:44 PM

One more thing that I could add on to that from the LMR perspective, which is really a 

separate system from MARS. We do have plans looking forward into next year, when we get 

to this, is including in that year’s enhancement a centralized change management notification 

process for users. It would be optional. You could toggle on or toggle off if they would like to 

be notified if new features are introduced, if new reports are issued, or if there are any

system issues. They’re also working on a method to notify users of any corrections or 

superseded reports through the LMR Datamart system. The plan is to introduce this in 2021.

Question: Katelyn McCullock 01:48 PM 

Do we know when the Estimated Fluid Milk Product Sales Report will be released again? Last 

release was December 10, 2019 for October data.

Answer: Mike Lynch 02:49 PM

We saw that question earlier and reached out to our friends at Dairy Market News. The 

answer we received is that they expect it to be out in the next week. But, what I’ll do is make 

sure that somebody from our Dairy Market News team, they can respond to Katelyn directly, 

if they have other information as to when that report will be released, if it’s going to be 

different than that.

Answer: Lorie Cashman 02:51 PM 

I don't have a question, but this is Lorie Cashman from AMS Dairy. We've had some 

particularly challenging programming issues with the Estimated sales report, but we hope to 

publish November at the end of the week. Once November is out, we will be able to publish 

the rest of the Estimated reports in short order.
Question: Katherine Stone 02:25 PM 

The notice this morning about the TXT files was a bit confusing for me. The notice I saw was 

the LMR Reports will no longer be published in TXT format. Is this just for LMR or for all 

reports?

Answer: Jason Karwal 03:30 PM 

This will only impact the LMR reports for now but we will be transitioning other TXT reports to 

PDF over the next year.

Question: C Watters 

The Ag Transportation Open Data Platform is great and very user friendly. Have other offices 

considered moving to a similar platform?

Answer: 

Thank you for the compliment. There are several data visualization tools available for 

consideration. The AMS Transportation and Marketing Program chose to build their new 

platform using Socrata, which best fit their business needs and goals. Other options 

considered include Tableau, TIBCO Spotfire, Business Intelligence (BI), and possibly others. 

Each of these have their own pros and cons.

Question: Katelyn McCullock 

What steps are taken to validate the data ahead of release to ensure its correct and has 

limited errors through the API for MARS?

Answer: 

Each reporter is responsible for their assigned reports. This includes reviewing their reports 

before releasing to the public. If the report data is correct, the API data results should be 

correct. Our market reporters take great pride in reporting markets as accurately as possible; 

however, they are only human so typos and errors can occur. AMS is currently assessing the 

best solutions for notifying users when changes or corrections have been made to previously 

published report data. 

Question: Altin Kalo 

What is the possibility that pork export sales to Canada and Mexico will be included in the 

weekly update? Is this something that could change during re-authorization?

Answer: 

Packers covered by the LMR Act are already required to submit pork sales using 3 destination 

categories – Domestic, Export/Overseas, and NAFTA. So, no change to the packer’s reporting 

requirements would be necessary for this in reauthorization. 
How the data is published is largely an administrative function. During the negotiated 

rulemaking process in 2013, the pork industry stakeholders requested that all NAFTA sales of 

wholesale pork be included with the domestic sales as they have long viewed this as a 

domestic North American market. As such, AMS has never reported pork exports to Canada 

and Mexico separately from domestic sales. If the pork industry has changed their view on 

this and now wishes to have the NAFTA (or USMCA) sales reported separately, we could 

address this through the notice and comment rulemaking process.

Foreign Agricultural Service

Question: Bill Lapp 01:17 PM 

Any thoughts about the difference between soymeal export shipments data vs. Census data? 

The gap is historically wide.

Answer: Amy Harding 01:28 PM 

There are a number of factors that could lead to short-term discrepancies between shipments 

reported in the FAS U.S. Export Sales Report and the U.S. Census Bureau Exports. For 

instance, FAS Export Sales are reported on a weekly basis whereas U.S. Census Bureau Exports 

are reported on a monthly basis, thus reporting periods do not always match. 

One potential differentiating factor is that product descriptions are not identical, and 

exporters are responsible for categorizing their own exports. FAS Exports Sales requires 

reporting of “Soybean Cake and Meal” while the HS Code 1208.10.00 is for “Flours and meals

of oilseeds oleaginous fruits, other than those of mustard: Of Soybeans”, and HS Code 

2304.00.00.00 is for “Oilcake and other solid residues, whether or not ground in the form of 

pellets, resulting from the extraction of soybean oil”. The Export Sales Team is working with 

the Census Bureau to determine why there is such a wide gap. We hope to have a response 

from Census in the next few weeks.

Question: Bill Lapp 01:25 PM 

"If all goes as planned and we do have a government shutdown," - not sure I understood your 

correctly -- calling for anarchy?? (haha)

Answer: Patrick Packnett 01:46 PM 

Not predicting a shutdown but if there is one the updates we've made should position us to 

release weekly reports quickly after reopening and not have to lump many weeks of data in a 

singular report.
Question: Bill Lapp 01:26 PM 

I want to be the first user ex-DC of the GATS API!!

Answer: Patrick Packnett 01:46 PM 

I can put you in touch with our IT folks to work through utilizing the API when the time comes.

Question: Ken Lovett 01:27 PM 

Can the monthly updates to PS&D livestock values be released at the same time as grains and 

oilseeds?

Answer: Patrick Packnett 01:47 PM 

We are updating quarterly not monthly. We are striving to issue the reports as soon as 

possible after WASDE release.

Question: Nancy DeVore 01:46 PM 

Is there any consideration again to adding DDGs to export sales?

Answer: Patrick Packnett 01:58 PM 

No, not to my knowledge. There was a proposed rule to consider adding DDGs some years 

back. There was not ample support at that time to add DDGs.

Question: Ken Lovett 01:49 PM 

Patrick, what I was referring to was the PS&D datasets were released at ~12:10 EST and 

livestock updates were released ~3:30 EST. 

Answer: Patrick Packnett 02:12 PM 

This would require some process changes in the way we do things. We will take your request 

under advisement but can't make any promises on making the change.

Question: Karl Skold 02:19 PM 

Will you please clarify the handling of carcass sales and shipments in exports sales reporting 

and bunching of revisions in weekly data? Will past weekly data be adjusted for any new 

method adopted?

Answer: Amy Harding 02:33 PM 

Late reporting is noted in the highlights section of the weekly report. The current system is 

not able to reflect the late reporting in previously reported data. The option to adjust 

previous week's data with data that is reported late will be discussed in the upgrade of 

ESRMS.
Question: Dale Durchholz 01:45 PM 

Patrick P and Mark J - Given the growth in our competitors in coarse grains, corn in particular, 

is it possible that we could align Brazil and Argentina supply and demand (S&D) data with the 

World/US marketing year? It would mean having individual supply and demand data on a 

world and a local marketing year. With their competition, it's becoming more important to 

understand the short-term S&Ds. I have already put together a 6-month S&D for soybeans for 

US/Brazil/Argentina/Paraguay and am trying to put one together for corn for the same 

substituting Ukraine for Paraguay.

Answer: Patrick Packnett 02:44 PM 

The FAS PSD Online and Oilseeds: World Markets and Trade Report has local marketing year 

estimates for soybeans and products for Argentina and Brazil.

Question: Bill Lapp 01:56 PM

Joe DeCampo or Patrick, are you guys looking at soymeal exports FAS vs. Census, quite the 

gap building. Thanks!

Answer: Patrick Packnett 02:46 PM 

Hi Bill, I can get our analysts to take a look at the data gap. Feel free to shoot me any 

particulars you'd like to share.

Answer: Post-meeting answer from Amy Harding

Export Sales Reporting staff is currently working with a representative from Census to 

determine the cause of the large gap in reported exports of soymeal. We hope to hear back 

from Census in the next several weeks.

Questions: Cem Tekesin 

PSS Questions: 

1) Do you track release times of complete datasets (csv files)? It would be great if those 

would be released at the same time with WASDE. 

2) Any documentation for API in PSD? (like limitations, etc...)

3) Question about Weekly Export Sales, is there any plan to add historic revisions to pork 

and beef cuts?

Answers:

1) Yes, we track the release times for the CSV files and our aim is to have them released as 

soon as possible following the WASDE. It is not feasible to have them release 

simultaneous with the WASDE because of the work process that combines, loads, and 

publishes that data.
2) The only limitation for accessing PSD data over its API is that you need “API Key.” Users 

need to login using one of the three Authorization Providers (Google, Microsoft or 

Facebook) in order to generate a user-specific API Key. Users can login here to generate 

their API Key:

https://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/app/index.html#/app/about

Once logged-in, the screen below is displayed.

The FAS PSD Swagger page at the location below documents the available API end points, 

and provides brief descriptions of the methods, parameter types and how to invoke the 

endpoint using “Curl”. The Swagger documentation and test tool is accessible in the same 

web link shown below, and it is integrated into the PSD Online Application.

https://apps.fas.usda.gov/PSDOnlineDataServices/swagger/ui/index#/

You can also see sample data by invoking an endpoint (after entering the displayed API 

Key). The return data could be displayed as XML or JSON

In the future, this PSD API will reside under the “Common FAS Open Data Portal”, where 

GATS and ESR Query data and any other future data sources will also be available. The 

existing logins from PSD will continue to work at Common FAS Open Data Portal.

3) Late reporting of export sales data is noted in the highlights section of the weekly U.S. 

Export Sales Report. The Export Sales Reporting and Maintenance System (ESRMS) is 

currently not designed to revise historical data that was reported late. FAS plans to 

address this issue in the upgrade design of ESRMS.
World Agricultural Outlook Board

Question: Joel Karlin 01:29 PM

Does or can WAOB put past WASDE reports data in spreadsheet form for retrieval

Answer: Mark Jekanowski 02:13 PM 

Excel versions are available going back about 10 years at the Cornell Mann Library site 

(https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/3t945q76s?locale=en.)

Question: Anonymous Attendee 01:20 PM 

When will soybean oil used for renewable diesel be reflected along with usage for methyl 

ester in monthly WASDE balance sheets? Also, will the change include any historical 

revisions? Thanks.

Answer: Keith Menzie 02:16 PM

It would mostly depend on when we begin to receive the data, at that time I guess we would 

start to include it. I’ve thought a little bit about the question about historical revisions but 

without any actual data, going back kind of the way we did with biodiesel, where we had 

been tracking methyl ester for quite a few years before it came online. I haven’t exactly 

decided how I would be able to handle that but it would be difficult to break out a separate 

line in the balance sheet for renewable diesel prior to the actual commencement of the data 

series. I know there is data at EPA that we follow in regard to that but it doesn’t break out by 

feedstocks. 

Question: Rafael Bucciarelli 01:37 PM 

What is the timeline to make historical WASDE's available as a database or through an API?

Answer: Mark Jekanowski 02:24 PM

That’s a good question and I realize it’s probably come up at the past few Data Users’ 

Meetings. For a little bit of background, I think as you know, this was a project that started a 

few years ago. Seth Meyer, my predecessor, kicked it off and he’s been spending a lot of time 

working on it, even after he left the World Board. Basically, compiling the entire dataset of 

historic WASDEs going all the way back to the first one in September 1973. So, the good news 

is that that process is complete and what we’re doing right now is still struggling trying to find 

a place to house the data and where to release it. There are a few issues with it that make it 

a little bit complicated on our end because a lot of that data, and we can’t really call it official 

data, a lot of it was hand entered based off of paper copies from decades ago. So, we want to 

do it almost as some sort of open source, “user beware” type of data at first until any 

potential glitches are found, although we don’t expect there to be any. 
We’re working on it. It’s almost complete. We just got thrown off a little bit, of course, these 

last few weeks and months because of the move out of the South Building and more 

telework, so it hasn’t been right on top of our radar, but we are getting there and we hope to 

have something out later this spring or early summer for public consumption, at least I hope 

so.

Question: Pre-meeting Submitted Question read by Joe Parsons 02:31PM

How does WAOB come up with ethanol forecast or wheat by class export history as Census 

does not report wheat by class? 

Answer: Mark Jekanowski 02:31 PM

Two technical questions and I’ve got my technical experts on the call, let’s go to Mike Jewison 

for ethanol and Bill Chambers for wheat. 

Answer: Mike Jewison 02:33 PM

This is a great question, in the ethanol world it’s complex to say the least but in any given 

month we would, for the most forward looking indications of what’s going on, lean heavily on 

what EIA puts out both in terms of the short term energy outlook and their weekly petroleum 

status report. Obviously with the scenario that we are under right now where things change 

in less than a week, the weekly petroleum status report is crucial for providing an indication 

for both what’s being produced and for stock levels and domestic motor gasoline 

consumption. Keep in mind that EIA is an indicator that we use to get back to what NASS 

surveys as being reported as used to make ethanol both in the form of corn and sorghum. 

Answer: Bill Chambers 02:34 PM

I can talk about wheat by class. Frankly, it’s an even shorter answer. For the wheat by class, 

we get our final export data from Census and to break it out by class, we use ratios from 

export sales as well as donations where we do have the by class data. We get the total 

number from Census and break it out by class using FAS export sales. 

Question: Alan Brugler 03:04 PM

Alan Brugler, Brugler Marketing & Management out in Omaha. This is a related question for 

feed & residual as well. We’ve got a huge drop in DDG production here because of the 

ethanol plants shut downs. We know there’s going to be, and already is, a substantial 

increase in corn feeding because of the lack of DDG availability. How is that going to be 

handled in the WASDE reports in the next month or two? Are we going to have to wait until 

after the June Grain Stocks Report to find out what happened or are we going to be able to 

make some changes in either May or June WASDE?
Answer: Mike Jewison 03:05 PM

Great question Alan. Obviously, any given month, all numbers are on the table, which would 

include feed & residual. I will say, however, that given the uncertainty with overall corn 

demand right now, and probably in the next coming months, obviously the next quarter 

stocks report will provide a better indication of what happened in terms of feed & residual 

disappearance among other things.

Question: Alan Brugler 03:05 PM

In other words, you’re going to wait.

Answer: Mike Jewison 03:05 PM

I didn’t say that sir. I said in any given month, all numbers are on the table.

Answer: Keith Menzie 03:06 PM

Mike, can I weigh in a little bit too? There’s probably a little question about livestock 

numbers going forward. There’s a lot of dynamics going on in the livestock market right now 

that have yet to play out.

Question: Anonymous Attendee 02:25 PM 

Can’t you put the historical WASDE datasets with the downloadable PS&D files like you have 

the Russian Spring vs Winter wheat figures?

Answer: Mark Jekanowski 03:26 PM 

We do make the historical data for individual WASDEs available on the Mann Library website, 

and we could probably add links to it on different parts of USDA's website. The large, 

combined historical WASDE dataset that WAOB has been working on for a few years is a 

different challenge because of its size and complexity. It will need a lot of documentation and 

server space, hence the challenge in finding the right place to house it.

Question: Mark Welch 02:43 PM 

Will corn acres from Prospective Plantings be automatically inserted into the May WASDE for 

20/21 planted acres or will recent price activity, corn relative to soybeans, influence that 

estimate?

Answer: Mark Jekanowski 03:38 PM 

As had been noted in an earlier question, practically all variables in the WASDE are “on the 

table” and subject to change each month. We always use the best information we have, and 

sometimes that information can change right until the last minute. Of course, Prospective 

Plantings has historically almost always been the best information available in May.
Question: Rodney Christian 03:12 PM 

Since physically reporting from Lock up we have been greatly dependent on the timely 

release of reports to the public. In particularly we notice a delay in the WASDE data, up to 2 

minutes. Is there anything being done to get that report out to public exactly at 12:00 ET?

Answer: Mark Jekanowski 03:38 PM 

Our aim always is to get the report out precisely at noon. We have had some technical issues 

in a few recent months that might have caused a brief delay, but we believe we have worked 

through those and fully expect the report to hit exactly at noon going forward.

Economic Research Service

Question: Jerry Gidel 01:44 PM 

Recently corrections have occurred particularly in the Feed Outlook for April when the 

quarterly corn table had feed demand level that impacted the March 1 stocks. Has this been 

a staffing issue or some other reason why this data was issued before a correction? This also 

occurred in F&O US soybean crush for Feb. It’s a tough time but any reason (tech or 

supervision) for these big corrections occurring?

Answer: Cindy Nickerson 02:45 PM

Thank you, I appreciate the understanding. This wasn’t a staffing issue, it was just a tech issue 

related to data transfer that happened. And I’d have to look back at the February one. I saw 

your question, and I’ve been trying to get an answer while waiting for Joe to ask the question, 

but don’t have one yet.

Answer: Post-meeting follow-up response.

For ERS, this was not a staffing issue. In the case of Soybean crush and Feed grains products, 

revisions were made to underlying source data that required us to update our files as well. In 

the case of Feed grains, technology issues also made further revision necessary.

Question: Ken Lovett 01:44 PM 

Can the outlook reports and analysis include monthly estimates (like soybean crush in the Oil 

Crops Outlook), in addition to the quarterly and annual values?

Answer: Cindy Nickerson 02:47 PM

That’s obviously going to depend on the frequency. I’m going to have to get back to you on 

that question. 
Answer: Cindy Nickerson 03:03 PM 

Ken - for soy, monthly data is already included in tables 1-3 in the excel file with the report.

Answer: Post-meeting answer from Cindy Nickerson

Below are details by commodity:

Monthly estimates

1. Livestock, Dairy and Poultry

a. ERS provides an array of monthly data on the webpages for Livestock and Meat 

Domestic Data, Livestock and Meat International Data, Meat Price Spreads, and 

Dairy Data. 

b. Quarterly and annual forecasts for U.S. red meat, poultry, and dairy appear in 

the Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook report (LDP Outlook). There are no 

monthly forecasts because none are generated by the interagency process, 

chaired by the USDA World Agricultural Outlook Board. Historical data that 

appear in tables of this report show quarterly and annual data.

c. For Red meat and poultry, we only forecast on a quarter and annual basis. If 

users want monthly estimates of production and slaughter, they can look to the 

Livestock & Meat Domestic Data webpage.

d. Helpful Links:

i. Livestock and Meat International Data (including monthly estimates of 

production and slaughter): https://www.ers.usda.gov/dataproducts/livestock-and-meat-international-trade-data/livestock-andmeat-international-trade-data/

ii. Livestock and Meat Domestic Data: https://www.ers.usda.gov/dataproducts/livestock-meat-domestic-data/

iii. Meat Price Spreads: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/meatprice-spreads/meat-price-spreads/

iv. Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook: 

https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/g445cd121?locale=

en

2. Sugars and Sweeteners

a. We only have official forecasts on an annual basis. We may have models or 

calculations of monthly/quarterly data that build up to those annual forecasts. 

But we don’t and wouldn’t release those in any official capacity. Any historical 

data reported on a monthly/quarterly basis would be published that way 

through the data product. 

b. Helpful Links

i. Sugars and Sweeteners Data: 

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/sugar-sweeteners/data/
ii. Sugars and Sweeteners Outlook: 

https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/pv63g024f?locale=

en

3. Feed and Wheat

a. Feed Specific: 

i. This question usually arises in the context of quarterly supply & 

disappearance. Users frequently want monthly disappearance (including 

monthly feed and residual). It doesn’t exist because to calculate 

disappearance on a monthly basis, one would need ending stocks by 

month. NASS only surveys stocks 4 times a year so only quarterly data 

can be provided for supply and demand variables.

ii. Monthly data for feed grains is available for trade, most prices, and rail 

rates and shipments. For animal units, only annual units (updated 

monthly) is available.

iii. Helpful Links

1. Feed Outlook: 

https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/44558d29f?

locale=en

2. Feed Grains database: https://data.ers.usda.gov/FEED-GRAINScustom-query.aspx

3. Feed Grains Yearbook Tables: www.ers.usda.gov/dataproducts/feed-grains-database/feed-grains-yearbook-tables

b. Wheat

i. The information provided for feed grains applies to wheat as well. Once a 

quarter, we are able to provide monthly breakdowns of food use in 

addition to what is noted for Feed. However, we do not otherwise keep 

track of monthly disappearance, rather just quarterly S&U items. 

ii. Helpful Links

1. Wheat Data: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/wheatdata.aspx

2. Wheat Outlook: 

https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/cz30ps64c?

locale=en

4. Oil

a. The Oil Crops Outlook report has monthly data in tables 1-3. The tables include 

monthly data on crush, imports, and exports for soybeans, as well as production, 

imports, exports, domestic use, and stocks for both soybean meal and soybean 

oil.

b. Helpful Links

i. Oil Crops Data: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/oil-cropsyearbook/
ii. Oil Crops Outlook: 

https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/j098zb08p?locale=

en

5. Rice

a. The Rice Outlook reports monthly and annual U.S. rice imports from monthly 

released Census data. Monthly U.S. rough-rice cash farm prices from NASS are 

reported as well as monthly average global and U.S, trading prices from weekly 

reported price quotes and from the weekly posted Adjusted World Rice Price 

from FSA.

b. All global production, exports, and imports are reported market year or calendar 

year,

c. U.S. exports are reported for both market year and to-date from the weekly U.S. 

Export Sales.

d. Helpful Links

i. Rice Data: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/rice-yearbook/

ii. Rice Outlook: 

https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/dn39x152w?locale

=en

6. Cotton

a. The Cotton and Wool Outlook does provide (mostly) monthly U.S. data, as 

available. Much of this data is originally reported by either NASS, AMS, or 

Census. 

b. Here’s a listing of monthly data in the Outlook report:

i. Cotton

1. Beginning stocks

2. Ginnings

3. Mill use

4. Exports

5. Prices (various)

ii. Wool

1. Imports (various)

2. Exports (various)

3. Prices (various)

iii. Textile Trade

1. Imports and Exports for 5 fibers

c. Helpful Links

i. Cotton and Wool Outlook: 

https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/n870zq801?locale=

en

ii. Cotton Data:

1. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/cotton-wool-andtextile-data/cotton-and-wool-yearbook/
2. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/cotton-wool-andtextile-data/raw-fiber-equivalents-of-us-textile-trade-data/

7. Agricultural Trade Outlook

a. Monthly data regarding total agricultural trade, bulk commodities, main 

commodity groups, and top trade partners is reported on a monthly basis in the 

Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United States product. This product only 

contains historical data without forecasts.

b. The Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade is produced quarterly using the most 

recent monthly data and includes forecasts for the upcoming year or remainder 

of the year depending on the quarter. 

c. Helpful Links

i. U.S. Agricultural Trade Data: 

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/international-markets-us-trade/usagricultural-trade/data/

ii. U.S. Agricultural Trade Outlook: 

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/international-markets-us-trade/usagricultural-trade/outlook-for-us-agricultural-trade/

Question: Sue Gray 02:30 PM 

Is ARMS data collected that is not openly available on the site, and if so, can it be accessed or 

purchased? Thanks!

Answer: Cindy Nickerson 02:42 PM 

We and NASS can sometimes do "special" tabulations - see the information here: 

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/arms-farm-financial-and-crop-productionpractices/contact-us/

Answer: Cindy Nickerson 02:50 PM

There is an opportunity to request a special tabulation. It’s not called “special” because we 

limit the results to the person who asks for it, but it’s “special” in the sense that you can’t 

already get it from the estimates that we have publicly posted. There is a process to follow 

and that is outlined on the ERS website. If you go to the ARMS Data page and look under 

Contact Us, it’ll explain the process for requesting a special tabulation. Obviously this 

depends on our staffing, but the types of tabulations that are of greatest interest are the ones 

that we do, because what we make available to one, we make available to all. So, the request 

for the tabulation is given to the requestor and then at the same time posted to our website.

Answer: Joe Parsons 02:51 PM

I should add that we have a similar process at NASS for our datasets as well, especially for the 

Census of Agriculture. We have many, many special tabulations. We do make them available 
to everyone that has an interest, and we have a queue of those right now that we’re working 

through. We also, for qualified research, if someone has a question they would like to ask of 

the data, some sort of analysis, we, with regard to ARMS, we and ERS, work with folks to get 

them secure access and allow them to conduct their research. Similarly, with the Census of 

Agriculture and other datasets. So, we have a process for that and there’s a link on our 

website to be able to get there and I know ERS has similar links. If you can’t find what you’re 

looking for, you’re welcome to reach out to me or Cindy and we’ll get you square.

Question: Jerry Gidel 02:05 PM 

Last fall many the ERS main office was switched to Kansas City. What percent of the positions 

have been filled in the new location? How many annual and specific articles have been 

postponed or canceled because of reduced staff being available?

Answer: Cindy Nickerson 03:13 PM

We did have roughly three quarters of our positions get moved out to Kansas City. We did 

have some attrition, as is well known, and we’ve been working actively to hire and refill those 

positions. Your questions are sufficiently broad that I actually don’t have an overarching 

answer to the specifics, but if there’s a particular report that you’re curious about, I’d have a 

better shot at answering. I’m not aware of there being issues with delays. We have our 

releases scheduled on our ERS calendar on our website, as to when reports are coming out. 

Those are still being published. But, if you have a particular report in mind, let me know and 

I’ll be happy to look into it for you.

Answer: Post-meeting follow-up response

As of the pay period ending March 28, 2020, ERS has 49 employees onsite in Kansas City, with 

65 employees permanently remaining in DC at headquarters. ERS is aggressively recruiting 

and hiring for open positions.

Question: Joel Karlin 02:28 PM 

Does the ERS Food Expenditure Series or any database break down sales of food at home 

(FAH) and food away from home (FAFH) in more detail? For instance in dairy percent of 

cheese, butter and fluid milk consumed at home vs. away from home?

Answer: 

Yes, please use these links:

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-consumption-and-nutrient-intakes/

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-availability-per-capita-data-system/
Census Bureau

Question: Robert Brown 02:00 PM 

For Census. We see trade data from Australia and Brazil within 10 days of the end of the 

month. I appreciate USA volume is orders of magnitude bigger than those countries but will 

release dates for trade data creep forward in the coming years.

Answer: Joe DeCampo 02:53 PM

I really couldn’t say. I am unaware of any movement to push press release dates forward. 

However, The Advance Economic Indicators Report, which covers International Trade as well 

as Wholesale and Retail inventories, comes out about a week before our regular FT-900 

release. It covers data at a very high level.

Question: Rodney Christian 02:18 PM 

Joe from Census - You had mentioned something new coming out in June concerning trade. 

Would you mind repeating that information?

Answer: Joseph DeCampo 03:25 PM

We have a revision policy where we will go back and when people correct their export data, 

or import data, we will go back and retroactively put it into USA Trade. We do it over a 3-year 

period, so this coming June, I believe it’s June the 4th, I might be wrong about that, but it’s the 

same day that we release our April trade data, we will also be releasing the revisions to 2017, 

2018, and 2019 data.

Question: Jerry Gidel 

This is a reaction to the Census B statement of 3 year correction on the US export data. They 

previously did this correction in July for 13 months period.

Answer: Joe DeCampo

Every year, in June, Census publishes updates on USA Trade Online to our data for the 

previous 3 years. So, for example, this year we'll be updating 2017, 2018, and 2019 

data. Next year it will be 2018, 2019, and 2020 data. And it's always the first week of June, 

on the same day that we publish our April data.
National Agricultural Statistics Service

Question: Bill Lapp 01:17 PM 

Please clarify if the updated 2019 crop estimate will be made in May, June or both? Will 

North Dakota corn and soybean crop estimates be made separately?

Answer: Lance Honig 02:14 PM

I'm sure most of you are aware, back in December when we did our survey for end of year 

acreage, yield, and production, there were a number of acres still left to be harvested. As a 

result, in January when we issued the Annual Crop Production Report, we also issued a notice 

that we would be doing some resurvey work in 5 states where the majority of that 

unharvested production was for corn and soybeans. Recently we made the announcement of 

when that resurvey would happen. Even as we speak, we are finishing up data collection for 4 

of the 5 states: Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Once we have all of that 

data collected, we will evaluate it and if any updates are necessary to the 2019 acreage, yield, 

or production for those crops in those states, then we will be publishing updates in the May 

Crop Production Report. 

North Dakota, if you have been following the progress up there, they still have more than 10% 

of the corn acres still standing out in the field. We were not able to go out and gather that 

data just yet, that will come at a later date, we don't know exactly when yet because we need 

farmers to make a bit more progress on getting that crop out of the field. It should be soon 

enough that we would be able to evaluate that state before the June Crop Production Report. 

That would certainly be our expectation but until we see some more progress there we 

haven’t fixed any dates on when that will occur. 

Question: Pre-meeting Submitted Question read by Joe Parsons 02:23PM 

How is NASS handling the June Area and Objective Yield survey this year? How do the current 

stay at home orders affect the NASS objective yield plots? I'm sure you can assign them, but 

can you go out and stake them, etc? In all states including those with shelter in place? 

Answer: Lance Honig 02:23 PM

I’ll start with objective yield, winter wheat objective yield is the first one up. We will be 

hitting the fields within the next couple of days. As you all know, the reason the question 

comes up is because objective yield is all done in person. As Joe mentioned earlier, we have 

suspended all in person data collection but there is a little bit of a difference with objective 

yield. We say it’s in person which means we actually send a person out to the field but the 

good news for us in this situation is that when enumerators go out into the field for objective 

yield, they go alone, they don’t go with the farmer. It isn’t truly in person enumeration, the 

only factor we had to deal with is that normally our field selection process is something that 
we would go sit down with the farmer and list out fields to identify our selected sample field. 

We’ve modified our form and procedure a little bit on that so that we can actually do our field 

selection over the phone. The farmer will provide the enumerator with very specific 

directions to that field to ensure that the enumerator knows where to go to do that. For 

objective yield, everything is on and moving forward. 

The June Area Survey is historically an in-person interview survey. The primary purpose of the 

June Area Survey is for us to measure the incompleteness of our list. The reason it is in person 

is because we have segments of land that enumerators have to go out and first determine 

who all of the operators are within those segments and then meet with them to collect the 

required information. We then match that against our list to find out who potentially we 

could be missing. To work around that this year, we are going to reuse the June 2019 area 

frame for this measure. That doesn’t mean we are going to carry the data forward from 

2019. We are going to use that frame, those same selected operations, we will match them 

up against our list frame again to make sure that we still know what we might be missing and 

what we are not. We will collect updated information from them but because we are using 

last year’s frame of farms we have already identified, we will be able to collect that 

information either over the phone, via mail or through our online reporting. We will continue 

to do what we’ve done in the past, we will do it a little bit differently by reusing some of the 

frame from last year but we will gather updated information this year and be able to provide 

the same estimates for the Acreage Report that we always have in the past. 

Question: Pre-meeting Submitted Question read by Joe Parsons 02:29PM 

How is NASS handling Lockup reports? 

Answer: Dan Kerestes 02:30 PM

All NASS reports will be going out on schedule. We fully expect Crop Production to be 

released under tight security controls. The health and safety of our employees, our 

enumerators is our first priority. We continue to evaluate all data collection requirements and 

agency operations as conditions change and that also includes the May Crop Report. 

Answer: Mark Jekanowski 02:30 PM

We’re on the same page with NASS and fully expecting that all of our monthly reports will go 

out on schedule under the tightest levels of security possible.

Question: Pre-meeting Submitted Question read by Joe Parsons 02:35PM 

Assuming some acreage or yield loss is seen in the resurveys, will the January final yield and 

production be adjusted? Or will any slippage just be buried in residual use? 
Answer: Lance Honig 02:35 PM

When we get the results of the survey in if any updates are necessary based on that new 

information, we will be publishing new acreage, yield, and production numbers for the 2019 

crop in the May Crop Production Report. After we go back out and are able to resurvey in 

North Dakota, the same thing will apply, if that new data justifies any additional changes to 

last year’s crop then once again we will publish those in the next report which hopefully 

would be June Crop Production. That would allow the World Board to incorporate those new 

numbers into the WASDE report. 

Question: Pre-meeting Submitted Question read by Joe Parsons 02:37PM 

Previous year’s acreage is used for weights for crop progress instead of this year’s Prospective 

Plantings. Do you want to share why that is? 

Answer: Lance Honig 02:37 PM

For the most part, we have used previous year’s acreage number for the progress numbers in 

the following season. We want to make sure that we’ve got a consistent acreage weighting 

scheme throughout the season. If we were to use the current numbers from Prospective 

Plantings now, when the Acreage Report comes out at the end of June we would need to shift 

those acres over. Any change we make to the weights is going to change those, I will call it 

U.S., but maybe it’s an 18 state total or whatever number that might be, and we certainly 

don’t want to see those progress numbers change from week to week simply because we 

made a change to the weighting scheme. We want to make sure we are consistent 

throughout that entire process with the same set of weights. 

One other question that I’ve had recently on that same topic is a question about why we are 

continuing to use last year’s weights this year knowing that last year was such a strange year. 

First of all I think it’s important that we stay consistent in our procedures, if we start to pick 

and choose which weight we want to use in any given year, I think there’s always the 

potential to question whether or not something was different than normal. I think you get too 

much judgement coming into the equation then. The second comment I would make about 

that is that even though last year’s acreage swings were pretty significant, it was largely in 

total. If you look at how we use these acreages for weights, it really doesn’t become a big 

factor unless you’ve got large swings in the proportion by state. Certainly there were 2 or 3 

states that did swing more than others but in general for as big as the changes were that we 

saw in total acreage, particularly on soybeans, the distribution of those acres across the states 

included in crop progress really didn’t change as much as you might think. In fact, we are 

early in the season, but I did go back and recalculate those progress numbers for the first 

couple of weeks for corn and the first week for soybeans it had no impact whether we used 

this year’s or last year’s acreage on those totals. As we get farther into the season I know the 

impact could be a little bit larger. But that’s the thought process we use for those weights. 
Question: Pre-meeting Submitted Question read by Joe Parsons 02:38 PM 

We received a question from Brad Lindblad earlier about, will there be any integration with 

popular R and Python programming packages that allow users to pull data directly from 

NASS?

Answer: Joe Parsons 02:38 PM

I know Brad has created an R package that allows Quick Stats data to be pulled down easily. I 

believe the context of this question is that we are looking at an upgrade to our dissemination 

system in the future. We are just getting underway with that but it certainly is our 

expectation to create an API such that you could hit it in many different ways. I think the 

answer to your question would be yes. 

Question: Bill Lapp 01:45 PM 

You have hundreds of people on this call. Beyond this call or inquiries is there a possibility of 

leveraging the interest and insights of people on the call (and others interested) to guide how 

the data is presented and delivered? I would be glad to volunteer to be on any agency 

committee!

Answer: Joe Parsons 02:48 PM 

Yes, we have a strategic initiative at NASS that is looking at our dissemination process 

planning team and as we move forward, we will be looking for input, we are not exactly at 

that stage just yet but it won’t be very far away and I’m sure we will be reaching out to you all 

to get some insight. 

Question: Aaron Kroll 01:59 PM 

What happened to the JSON file for the quarterly Grain Stocks at the end of March?

Answer: Lance Honig 02:52 PM

The JSON files are only posted out there for the day of the release. I’m not aware that anyone 

reached out on that day indicating that the file was missing. At this point it’s kind of hard to 

go back and track on that be we will certainly make sure that everything is in place to keep 

those out there properly on release day. 

Question: Dale Durchholz 02:03 PM 

What information is going to be included in the survey of irrigation organizations?

Answer: Dan Kerestes 02:55 PM

First of all, we’re going to organizations that provide off-farm water for farms or manage 

ground water usage on-farm and we are going to look at providing a break out of the services 
that these organizations provide, the amount or volume of water that they control and work 

with and also some associated economic data. That survey was last done in 1978.

Question: Scott Heisel 02:03 PM 

Could you please elaborate on not publishing crop reporting district numbers?

Answer: Dan Kerestes 02:56 PM

We’ve been taking a look at standardizing everything that we do at NASS and making it 

consistent across all commodities and at the same time looking at how we do county 

estimates as a whole with our goal to publish more information. That’s one thing NASS 

always wants to do, make sure we are publishing the most information we can. By not 

publishing the district estimates it allows us to publish more counties. In the past if you had a 

county in a particular district you couldn’t publish, you have to hide another county in that 

same district so you wind up not publishing two counties. Under this new rule we will have a 

lot more counties that will be published than were in the past. 

Answer: Joe Parsons 02:57 PM

We did a serious of simulations and we can tell both from the complementary disclosures 

being able to get rid of many of those because of the ag statistics districts but also the new 

publication rule for crop county estimates. Relative to holding everything else constant the 

number of crop/county combinations that we will be able to publish will be much higher. 

Question: Pre-meeting Submitted Question read by Joe Parsons 02:57 PM 

I would like to understand better how you look at livestock data and calculated residual to 

come to conclusions on stock adjustments? Also, is this a change in methodology, adjusting 

stocks to better fit feed and residual, or is this something NASS has always done, but the 

public hasn't seen due to it being done prior to release of stock data (without revision in later 

quarters)?

Let me repeat another question right behind it, you may want to take them together. 

Question: Jennie Campbell 02:13 PM 

What is the rationale behind last year's 18/19 soybean production change at the end of the 

crop year with the September 1 stocks? It seems to be a departure from the past where crop 

size was adjusted if feed and residual indicated a problem because the production change 

from looking at feed and residual would not have implied a change anywhere near as large as 

was made. Much higher than historical stock level would have supported a higher than 

normal residual. The quarterly feed and residual using the final production also looks off with 

too small September, October, November, indicating the crop could be too small, versus high 

March, April, May, which could be explained by record high stocks on farm which tend to 

correlate with higher residuals.
Answer: Lance Honig 02:58 PM 

I’ll start with the soybeans. For soybeans it actually was not a departure from our normal 

process or anything we have done in the past, the only difference for soybeans last year was 

the magnitude of the change was a little bit larger than we would see in most years but the 

normal course of action is at the end of the marketing season when we are looking at a 

balance sheet and of course for soybeans, virtually every soybean is counted in some form or 

fashion because if it isn’t crushed or exported, there is not a whole lot of other use out there. 

It’s fairly common at the end of the season for us to make some adjustment to our previous 

year’s production based on that updated balance sheet information we have for the entire 

season. But again probably the biggest factor last year was we needed to make a little bit 

larger adjustment than we have in most years. 

Speaking of corn, the first part of the question asked about how do we use livestock inventory 

numbers. One of the components that we look at is something called a grain consuming 

animal unit. ERS generates some data on that and basically it’s a way to try to get some 

measure on how much feed use there might be based on livestock inventory levels. We 

certainly don’t use that to zero in on exactly how much grain was used for feed but it is 

something that we include in our analysis package. That would be the way that we 

incorporate livestock inventory information into a balance sheet for corn. 

Looking at the revisions we made to the 2018 crop and to the ending stocks number last year, 

a couple of things I will point out. Number one, procedurally, technically, that’s always been 

an open process for us. We made larger revisions last year than we probably ever have, so 

technically you’ve seen something you never have in the past but procedurally that has 

always been an open process in January. As Dan mentioned in the opening presentation this 

afternoon, we are going to move that process to September so it will be on the same time 

frame that we do soybeans. Basically, what that means is that we will have an opportunity to 

look at the previous year’s production at the same time that we are setting the ending stocks 

rather than doing it a quarter later. That will be one positive change moving forward. 

Does that mean that we will continue to see larger revisions to corn moving forward? We 

don’t know the answer to that because we haven’t seen what this year’s crop final marketings 

are going to look like but certainly, as has always been the case, both production and stocks 

are going to be subject to review at that time. Of course it will be the first shot at setting the 

ending stocks but also the previous quarters will be open to revisions at that same time. We 

think that by bringing that into September, not only does it align it with soybeans but again it 

really gives us a chance to do it on the spot rather than having to look back a few months 

later like we currently had to do in January. 

I would point out that if you want to think about the rationale behind the adjustments that 

we made, certainly residual was a component of that but I want to be very clear, we did not 

set a target residual. We don’t know exactly what that feed and residual number should be 
but as we were reviewing the balance sheet, it appeared to us in our analysis that the residual 

was a bit larger than what would have been expected so as we analyzed both production and 

stocks for potential revisions we did keep in mind that any adjustments that we made that 

would provide some benefit to that residual number would probably be a wise thing to do. It 

did enter in our conversation and into our analysis but we don’t know exactly what a feed and 

residual number for corn is and last year we did not make an attempt to set a feed and 

residual number and adjust to get to that. 

Question: Jennie Campbell 03:03 PM

I was following up with what Lance had answered, thank you, the last one about the 

soybeans. I do understand with soybeans that there is little other demand besides crush and 

exports that you know and that the adjustment at the end of the year is also common. But, 

this last year it was just such an extreme departure, the FSR and the production change, if you 

were to plot it. For it to be so large. It didn’t seem like the residual needed a crop reduction 

that large.

Answer: Lance Honig 03:04 PM

Well, and again, just to reiterate, based on the data we were looking at, obviously we felt it 

did. We certainly recognize that it was a larger adjustment than we make in most years. But, 

as usual, we were bringing that residual number into alignment with what we’ve seen 

historically. Again, looking at the data we had at the time. So, that’s really about as much as I 

can say about that. 

Question follow-up: Jennie Campbell 03:04 PM

OK. It looked out of line of the historical trend line. But, OK, maybe it was different at the 

time. Thank you.

Question: Jerry Gidel 03:07 PM

Over the years, we’ve come to these particular meetings many, many times and you always 

talk about the fact that some of this data we’ve had for years has been solid and pretty good 

over the time. And one of the ones, I’ve learned, stocks reports are one of those good classic 

scenarios. We get a great impact from the elevator business. That’s really a complete survey 

there and we’re making estimates of farm situations and that. Is that the expansion of farm 

storage that’s caused the dynamics of these foreign stock numbers to really kind of fly 

around? They’re not very easy to understand, particularly right now and even the next one 

after you’ve adjusted the one in December and how that impacted last year. What is the 

impact right now? We’ve done two thirds or three fourths of our corn demand in the first 

two stocks reports. Got any thoughts on how that stocks report got a little weird on us?

Answer: Lance Honig 03:09 PM
Well, I don’t know about the “how it’s gotten weird” part, but I can talk a little bit about the 

stocks estimates themselves. The off-farm stocks, as you mentioned, it’s effectively a 

census. But the thing we have to keep in mind is that even though it’s essentially a census 

that just means we’re attempting to get information from virtually every elevator out 

there. But, much like any other survey or census you do, you don’t get 100% response. So, 

even though it’s very good data, we get very high completion rates, but we don’t get 

everything. So, there is some room for us to need to make some adjustments in there based 

on the reports we don’t get in.

On the on-farm side, we collect that data from the same producers that we’re collecting the 

acreage, yield, and production information from, so back in March about 80,000 farmers, in 

addition to asking them how many acres they intend to plant to the various crops this year, 

we also ask all of them to report to us the quantities of grains and oilseeds they had stored as 

of March 1st. So, we’re going to the right people. We’re certainly getting it directly from the 

source, but we’re not getting 100% response. When farmers are reporting stocks, that’s not 

always an exact science either. There can be a little bit of wiggle room around that. We 

certainly have a lot of analysis in place to account for that. But, it’s subject to some of the 

same error that we see whether it’s acreage, yield, production, prices, or any other survey 

work that we do and that’s why you can see some revisions like we saw back in January in the

report there. It’s not just production that we can consider making revisions to and the 

balance sheet indicates the change is necessary. But stocks certainly are a component we can 

look at for revision as well. Procedurally, we haven’t changed what we’re doing over the 

years. So, if you’re seeing a little bit more noise around some of that data, it’s not because 

we’ve changed how we do what we’re doing. It would be pure speculation on my part to say 

what might be causing a little bit more of what you’re seeing. Although certainly we’ve seen 

different crops the last two years as well. So, I don’t know if that’s coming into play or what, 

but it’s not our procedures. We haven’t changed them.

Question: Jerry Gidel 03:11 PM

So in reality, we’re not going to have some sort of test weight issue that may be causing some 

of this problem, and so these elevators, not the elevators so much but the on-farm situation, 

looking at a bin it’s very hard for a person to figure out test weight if he’s got a 100,000

bushel bin and it’s half full it might be 45,000 instead of 50,000. So, that’s the issue I 

think. It’s really a factor that’s because you all know we’ve got an explosion of on-farm 

storage and that’s making it difficult for everybody.

Answer: Lance Honig 03:11 PM

Yes, and that’s certainly a possibility. But what I can tell you about that is that, again, 

nobody’s going to know better what’s going in those bins on the farms than the farmers 

themselves. If, in fact, they’re not able to get an accurate measure on what’s in there 

because of test weight issues then that can play a role in that, but nobody’s going to know 

that information any better, so that’s where we continue to go to get that. We have talked to 
some farmers about that issue. Specifically, the farmers we’ve talked to indicate they’re 

certainly trying to incorporate that into their numbers but we all know until that grain goes 

across the scale somewhere, it’s hard to know exactly what some of that could look like as 

well.

Question: Matthew Branan 02:05 PM 

When and where is the "Stat Chat" that you had mentioned? Thank you!

Answer: Lance Honig 03:14 PM

It’s on Twitter at 1:00 p.m. eastern time after the major crop reports. I will be on Twitter, we 

call it our Stat Chat series, if you put #StatChat into a search on that, the goal is that when 

people send questions in they will include that hashtag in their question, I always try to 

include it in my response so that you will be able to find those easily. What’s unique about 

Stat Chat is that I will be on there answering questions directly and you are not just 

submitting to some random @USDA_NASS social media manager, but it will be me that you 

are talking to and to ensure that you know you are talking to me, I end all of my responses 

with LH. It’s an opportunity for folks to get some real time answers to questions typically 

focused on the report that was just released although pretty much anything is fair game. Even 

if you don’t have a specific question that you want to ask me, we have tons of people who get

on there at 1:00 p.m. and follow it because you can see every other question and answer 

that’s put out there. If one person has the question, chances are pretty good that hundreds of 

people have that same question and so you get a chance to have that answered. I will add 

that I do try to follow the account as much as I can so if you’ve got questions outside of that

35-45 minute window, certainly put them out there, if I don’t see it somebody that’s 

managing the account on a more regular basis for us, if it’s for me they will point it out to me 

and I will get on there at any time and give you an answer to the question. It’s just another 

way that we are trying to be as transparent as we can and give you as many opportunities as 

possible to interact with us.

Question: Ken Lovett 02:07 PM 

Can a separate file of Quick Stats be posted each day that has only new or updated figures 

instead of the entire Quick Stats dataset?

Answer: Dan Kerestes 03:17 PM

That’s an interesting question. Right now we are not setup to just post information from the 

one day. We’re setup to basically update the database as it is. If that is something that is 

needed or wanted by the community as a whole, we can put that into our new dissemination 

process that we are working on. 

Answer: Joe Parson 03:18 PM
I think we can also carry that back. It is quite possible that one can filter the results to simply 

have an API pull that will only pull what’s just been posted that particular day. 

Answer: Lance Honig 03:18 PM 

I was going to say, Joe, that one of the fields that gets populated is the load date and so it 

would certainly be possible to do a data pull that shows you what’s new on any given day. 

Answer: Joe Parsons 03:18 PM

For the person that asked that question, reach out to us and we will definitely work with you. 

Answer: Dan Kerestes 03:19 PM

We’re going to need more information because obviously when we post information for a 

particular day, it also might include revisions for a particular quarter or previous report and so 

I think we need to know is the information that’s being requested only for that particular 

report or are they looking for revisions from previous quarters to go along with it? I think we 

need to know more details before we can say that it’s something we can readily do right 

away.

Question: Glynn Tonsor 02:07 PM 

Glynn Tonsor - Kansas State University. In coming months/years, once a return to "normal" 

occurs what plans are there by NASS (and perhaps other agencies) to evaluate any "bias" that 

occurred with increased reliance on primary data collected electronically?

Answer: Joe Parsons 03:20 PM

I will make a couple quick comments. We are doing some simulation or some evaluation work 

with regard to the June Area Survey that Lance mentioned in our research division. I suspect 

we will do some studies, we collect an awful lot of data right now from both mail and 

telephone and so I think it really depends on the survey. 

Question: Bill McCary 02:08 PM 

The wheat class data published previous year can be used to allocate production monthly for 

the year, however if USDA adjusts the wheat class data during the forecast year, this means 

reallocating the state data to match the report totals, if there is a change to winter wheat by 

class could NASS detail that data to allow analysts an easier task to match state class data to 

the totals?

Answer: Lance Honig 03:20 PM

The standard practice for NASS for setting those class numbers by state throughout the 

forecast season is to utilize the percentage distribution from the previous season. We don’t 

collect any in-depth class level information until September when we are doing the final 
estimates for the season. So effectively if you look at those percentages we publish in the 

Small Grains Summary the previous year, that generally is what we are going to carry 

throughout the forecast season. There are a few occasions where maybe we will get access 

to some new information and obviously we want to try and make those numbers as accurate 

as possible, so if that happens, there have been some rare occasions where we have made 

some adjustments. 

Generally speaking, we are just carrying those percentages forward and of course they are 

whole percentages so you are going to get some rounding in there if you trying to get exactly 

precise. We limit what we publish in those monthly report to U.S. totals by class. We’ve got 

the states that we don’t publish individually during the forecast season as well so that might 

cloud what you are looking at a little bit too because for those smaller states you don’t 

actually know what the state totals are for winter wheat as a whole or the other wheats until 

later on in the season. Until everything is revealed it’s just going to be a little bit difficult to 

get exactly to those state level totals. 

Question: Bill McCary 02:09 PM 

Could NASS reduce the number of other states in its monthly production reports, especially 

for white wheat states?

Answer: Lance Honig 03:23 PM

That’s a little bit of a follow on to the comment I just made about the fact that we don’t 

publish every state individually during the forecast season. In a perfect world, we would 

publish 50 states for every crop and every report that we do but the reality is that we’ve got 

to balance budgets against the need for the data that’s out there so we have to prioritize 

some of what we do. To publish more of that information at a more granular level, that 

means we would have to collect more information and we have to expend more resources to 

do that. So right now what that means for our program is we focus our efforts on the states 

that contribute the largest proportion to the totals. Throughout the forecast season that 

shrinks a little bit more and we focus on trying to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 

85%-90% published individually but certainly we are still evaluating those remaining states 

we’re just not gathering, in some cases, as much data, some cases, not any data at all and 

evaluating it based on other factors such as surrounding states. It’s really a balancing of 

resources vs priorities. 

Question: Anonymous Attendee 02:28 PM 

First, thank you all for your work and efforts. Will a recording of this be made available to the 

public?
Answer: Joe Parsons 03:25 PM

Yes. We will have to figure out exactly how to post or link that for folks who might be 

interested. 

Question: Bill Nelson

Regarding county data, will the district designation of the FIPS code continue to be included? 

Related, will there be changes to the coding of past years? When does this adjustment occur? 

For 2020 crops?

Answer: 

The District FIPS code (and all other coding) will continue to be available in Quick Stats for 

each county estimate that is published, there just won’t be any data records for District totals 

since those estimates will no longer be provided. This change is effective beginning with the 

2020 crop year estimates.

Question: Rodney Christian 

You spoke of a new format that began last month with the Hogs & Pigs, Prospective Planting 

and Grain Stocks. You said the timespan was through next March Crop Production release. 

Does that mean Crop Production format will not change until March 2021 or has that format 

already been affected?

Answer: 

Each Executive Summary will be updated to the new format throughout the upcoming year. 

The March 2021 Crop Production Executive Summary will complete the cycle and therefore 

be the last one to be updated.

Question: Jason

We appreciate all the efforts and work of USDA. Two questions on USDA NASS API: 

1) Are all data in PDF reports of Crop Production and Crop Progress available through the 

NASS API? I have a programmer having difficulty locating topsoil moisture in Crop 

Progress report through API. Who can we reach out to for this type of problem? 

Answer:

All data for both Crop Production and Crop Progress are populated to the Quick Stats 

database, and therefore are available through the API. The topsoil data are located under 

commodity=SOIL, and topsoil and subsoil are classes within SOIL. For an API call, either of 

these parameters should bring the data back:

• &class_desc=TOPSOIL

• &long_desc__LIKE=TOPSOIL
Overall there are ~200,000 rows of data so the user would need to apply other limits (state, 

year, etc.) to get the dataset to a retrievable size. If more help is needed, please reach out to 

Lance Honig at Lance.Honig@usda.gov.

Question: 

2) We read on the website that USDA is considering redesigning and modernizing USDA 

NASS API. What are the considerations and timeline?

Answer:

There are no immediate plans to change the current API, but NASS is beginning a project to 

redesign the way we provide access to our published data and reports. The initial 2020 

project will include only a subset of NASS data but will be focused on a redesigned API driven 

interface. The new API should be more intuitive and flexible for data users. Additional data 

will be integrated in future years. Data users interested in providing feedback should contact 

NASS to be included in the redesign.

Question: Bill McCary 

Can NASS provide a list of what counties are in districts to ease our allocating data to 

districts?

Answer:

You can find a complete listing at.

https://www.nass.usda.gov/Data_and_Statistics/County_Data_Files/Frequently_Asked_Ques

tions/county_list.txt.

Question: Bill Nelson 

I understand your reasons for changing the calculation of the counties. But I want to know in 

Ag Quick Stats database, will there be a change in the data presentation? Will the FIPS code 

still include the district number? When does the change occur, 2020 crops or remaining ones 

to do for 2019 crops? Will past years data in Ag Quick Stats data base be adjusted to exclude 

districts if you do that going forward?

Answer: 

There will be no change to the Quick Stats database structure due to this change, therefore 

the District FIPS code will still be provided for each county estimate that is published. The 

change is effective beginning with the 2020 crop year estimates. No changes will be made to 

estimates for previous years.

Question: Nancy DeVore
Follow up question for Lance. We find a 1% difference in corn test weight from year to year 

can have as much as 50-100 million bushel impact on implied annual corn residual 

disappearance. Given this year's test weight was clearly on the low side historically, several 

percent below average at least, is this being taken into consideration when evaluating stock 

survey results and the impact on implied feed and residual? And thank you in advance for 

going into these details for us all!

Answer:

NASS stocks information is gathered from producers for on-farm totals, and commercial 

facilities for the off-farm portion. In both cases, operators are asked to provide holdings in 

standard units (i.e. account for issues such as test weight). Although we realize that every 

individual reporting may not know exactly what adjustment needs to be made, the data they 

provide is the most complete and accurate that is available. Further adjustments would be 

speculation and not data-driven, therefore are not made by NASS.

Energy Information Administration

Question: Bill Lapp 01:10 PM 

Mike Conner - Thank you very much for participating today! I am very excited to see EIA 

provide monthly information regarding renewable diesel production and feedstock 

usage. When will this report be available to the public? Will it be published at same time as 

the biodiesel monthly report on production and feedstock usage?

Answer: Mike Conner 2:12 PM

We don’t actually have a date yet for that survey to start. It was approved by OMB on January 

8

th

. We have an effort going on right now to get a system up and running that will allow us to 

process that new survey. I am anticipating we will be able to start collecting the data later this 

year. We will need some time to review the data after we begin collection and work with 

reporting companies to assure reporting is consistent with survey instructions and ready for 

publication before we make the data available. In the meantime, we are going to continue to 

report all of our existing data on the monthly biodiesel report and ethanol production. In the 

future the intent is to have the new survey data come out on the same schedule as the 

existing surveys, about 60 days after the end of the report period is when you could look for 

that data to be available once we start collecting it.
United States Department of Agriculture

2020 Data Users’ Meeting 

2020 Data Users’ Meeting

April 21, 2020

Joe Parsons

Chair, Agricultural Statistics Board
United States Department of Agriculture

2020 Data Users’ Meeting 

Closed Captions 

Click on up arrow 

for options
United States Department of Agriculture

2020 Data Users’ Meeting 

Ways to ask a question in Zoom 

Or send an email to:

Matt Gregg – matthew.gregg@usda.gov and 

Marisa Reuber – marisa.reuber@usda.gov
United States Department of Agriculture

2020 Data Users’ Meeting 

• Coronavirus operational information from NASS:

– The health and safety of our employees, enumerators, and survey 

respondents are our first priority.

– We have stopped in-person data collection for now and strongly 

encourage farmers and ranchers to respond online.

– We issued a news release on March 20 (posted on our website) 

sharing our status and that hasn’t changed at this point.

– All reports remain on schedule and we will announce any changes 

to our publication schedule, if there are any, as quickly as possible 

by news release, our website and twitter(@usda_nass).

• USDA has a series of questions and answers regarding COVID19 at USDA.gov/coronavirus.
United States Department of Agriculture

2020 Data Users’ Meeting 

• Mike Conner with the Petroleum and Biofuels 

Statistics Team at the Energy Information 

Administration at the Department of Energy 

• Yumna Khan at Statistics Canada. 
United States Department of Agriculture

2020 Data Users’ Meeting 
United States Department of Agriculture

2020 Data Users’ Meeting 

Panelists

• Mike Lynch, Agricultural Marketing Service 

• Patrick Packnett, Foreign Agricultural Service 

• Mark Jekanowski, World Agricultural Outlook Board 

• Cindy Nickerson, Economic Research Service 

• Brad Karmen, Farm Service Agency 

• Joseph DeCampo, U.S. Census Bureau 

• Dan Kerestes, National Agricultural Statistics Service 
AMS Mission

To facilitate the competitive and efficient 

marketing of agricultural products.
Market News

Collects & disseminates information to aid in the marketing 

of agricultural commodities locally, regionally, nationally, & 

internationally. 

✓ Cotton and Tobacco

✓ Dairy 

✓ Livestock, Poultry & Grain

✓ Specialty Crops 
Serving Our Customers

AMS is committed to ensuring the health and safety of our 

team while still providing the timely delivery of the services 

you value and expect. 

AMS continues to provide 

our regular services, from 

reporting markets to 

grading products to auditing 

processes to procuring food 

products. 
My Market News Updates

Data available – dairy, cotton quality, egg inventory, livestock auction & hay 

auction market information 

Summer 2020 – video auctions, rice, tobacco, direct hay, direct livestock, grain, 

feedstuffs, retail & national feeder cattle market information

Moving ahead – work for several commodities is scheduled, along with an update 

to the API that will enhance the customer experience by allowing larger data sets 

to be consumed more easily 

https://mymarketnews.ams.usda.gov/
New Report Dissemination Process

In February 2020, Market News introduced a new market report 

dissemination process, moving all report archives to My Market News. 

• Data users can search for ALL Market 

News reports in one easy-to-use tool

• Offers additional search features not 

available on the legacy AMS 

website search page 

https://mymarketnews.ams.usda.gov/filerepo/reports
Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting System (LMPRS): 

https://mpr.datamart.ams.usda.gov

LMR System Updates 

✓ LMR reports changed to a more user-friendly and accessible PDF format 

and mirror the report format generated by My Market News.

✓ All LMR reports renamed to match the My Market News naming convention. 

A list of new report names is posted on the My Market News, AMS, and LMR 

DataMart websites.

✓ In April, we introduced an LMR API that mirrors the functionality of the My 

Market News API, allowing customers to access LMR data more effectively, 

efficiently, and on demand. The legacy LMR Web Service remains available 

and will not change.

Mike Lynch

Acting Associate Deputy Administrator

Livestock and Poultry Program

202-720-4846 | michael.lynch@usda.gov

Taylor Cox

Acting Director

Livestock, Poultry, and Grain Market News 

515-323-2261 | taylor.cox@usda.gov
Look forward to your questions...
United States Department of Agriculture

Foreign Agricultural Service

USDA Data Users Meeting

April 2020

Patrick Packnett

Deputy Administrator

Global Market Analysis
United States Department of Agriculture

Foreign Agricultural Service

United States Department of Agriculture

Foreign Agricultural Service

World Markets & Trade Reports

66 Reports/Year

Agricultural Tariff Tracker

FTA Export/Import tariffs

Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade

Quarterly Trade Forecast

World Agricultural Production

Global Crop Production Portal

International Agricultural Trade Reports (IATR)

Global Agricultural and Disaster Assessment System (GADAS)

Export Sales 

Reporting

Global Agricultural 

Information Network

Global Agricultural 

Trade System

Production, Supply and 

Distribution

FAS Market Intelligence Products

https://www.fas.usda.gov/
United States Department of Agriculture

Foreign Agricultural Service

• The GAIN System allows FAS to provide timely intelligence 

and accurate analysis on global agriculture, agricultural 

markets, and foreign government policies affecting 

agricultural trade.

Recent Updates:

• New GAIN Homepage Fully Operational

• New functionality for mobile devices

• Revised reporting requirements

• Ad-hoc COVID-19 reporting

Global Agricultural Information Network
United States Department of Agriculture

Foreign Agricultural Service

United States Department of Agriculture

Foreign Agricultural Service

Scheduled FAS GAIN Report (2020)
United States Department of Agriculture

Foreign Agricultural Service

Reports with over 10K visits in 2019

Visits per GAIN Report Category

GAIN Report 2015 

(1,000)

2019 

(1,000)

Grain and Feed * 7 90

FAIRS * 8 70

Oilseeds and Products * 4 41

Livestock and Products * 3 21

Sugar * 3 21

Exporter Guide * 5 19

Food Processing Ingredients 4 19

Cotton and Products 3 18

Retail Foods 12 17

Rice 0.3 13

Coffee 5 13

Biofuels 3 12

* Record Number of Visits in 2019
United States Department of Agriculture

Foreign Agricultural Service

Visits per GAIN Country Report

Top 5 Reporting Countries with Most Visited Reports in 2019

 - 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000

China

Japan

India

Brazil

EU

Indonesia

China Japan India Brazil EU Indonesia

2019 78,123 35,792 35,758 31,600 24,878 18,953

2015 20,999 7,222 8,708 2,791 4,495 2,331

NUMBER OF VISITS PER GAIN COUNTRY REPORT
United States Department of Agriculture

Foreign Agricultural Service

Recent Updates

• ERS System updated to 

resume normal operations 

after Government closures

• New system allows the 

publication of individual 

weekly ESR

• 2019 USDA Final Rule to 

clarify descriptions for beef 

and pork cuts

Looking Ahead

• Projection to re-design the 

ESR and Maintenance 

system beginning 2021

• Intensifying desk audits and 

site visits to ensure 

compliance with 

requirements

USDA Export Sales Reporting System
United States Department of Agriculture

Foreign Agricultural Service

Global Agricultural Trade System

• GATS is an FAS Agricultural Trade database that 

includes agricultural, fish, forest, and textile 

products trade statistics dating from the 

inception of the Harmonized coding system in 

1989 to present.

Looking Ahead:

• In 2020, FAS will create APIs for GATS data 

including U.S. Trade, U.S. trade data with customs 

districts and U.N. Trade Data.
United States Department of Agriculture

Foreign Agricultural Service

Production, Supply & Distribution

• The PS&D Online serves as FAS’s repository for 

published PSD datasets, reports, and circulars.

Recent Updates:

• FAS has increased the frequency of publication of 

the Livestock and Poultry: World Markets and 

Trade Report from a semi-annual to a quarterly 

basis.
United States Department of Agriculture

Foreign Agricultural Service

QUESTIONS?

Patrick Packnett

Deputy Administrator

Global Market Analysis
Office of the Chief Economist

World Agricultural 

Outlook Board

Mark Jekanowski 

World Agricultural Outlook Board Chair

27
Office of the Chief Economist

WAOB serves as USDA’s focal point for economic intelligence and the commodity outlook for U.S. and 

world agriculture:

• Coordinates, reviews, and approves the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) 

report

• Houses OCE's Joint Agricultural Weather Facility

• Coordinates USDA's Agricultural Outlook Forum

Chief Meteorologist 

Mark Brusberg

Interagency Commodity Estimates Committees

Chaired by WAOB Senior Analysts

Feed 

Grains

Michael 

Jewison 

Livestock & 

Dairy

Shayle Shagam

Oilseeds

Keith 

Menzie

Cotton

Steven 

MacDonald

Sugar & 

Sweeteners

Stephen Haley

The World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB), housed within USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist,

WAOB serves as USDA’s focal point for economic intelligence and the commodity outlook for U.S. and world 

agriculture:

• Coordinates, reviews, and approves the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates 

(WASDE) report

• Coordinates USDA's Agricultural Outlook Forum

World Board Chair 

Mark Jekanowski

Food Grains

William 

Chambers

28
Office of the Chief Economist

World Agricultural Outlook Board

Recent changes 

• Mark Jekanowski was appointed as Board Chair on March 

29.

• He succeeded Seth Meyer who departed in July 2019, after 

serving as a Board Chair for five years

29
Office of the Chief Economist

Report on U.S.-China Economic and Trade Agreement in the 

WSADE Forecast 

• OCE published a report in February discussing how provisions of the 

U.S.-China Economic and Trade Agreement will be reflected in WASDE 

trade forecasts. 

The report is available on the OCE website 

https://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/reports/USDATradeForecastsAnd

USChinaAgreement.pdf

30
Office of the Chief Economist

Changes to WASDE Correction Process

• Previously, corrections to the WASDE report were reposted to the OCE 

and Cornell’s MANN Library websites under the same file name.

• Now, if the WASDE report is reposted to correct an error in the tables or 

text, the file name (for all four file formats) will be changed to reflect that 

there is a new version, and an errata statement will be included in the 

file and posted on the OCE website to describe the change.

31
Office of the Chief Economist

A successful 2020 Agricultural Outlook Forum

32

• The Agricultural Outlook Forum 

is USDA’s oldest and largest annual 

meeting and the Department’s 

premiere event

• The Forum, now on it’s 97th year, 

serves as a platform for key players 

in the agricultural sector to discuss 

current and emerging issues, 

policies, exchange ideas, and 

highlight industry breakthroughs
Office of the Chief Economist

A broad range of timely topics and highly diverse group of participants

• The 2020 Forum was held on February 21-

22, under the theme “The Innovation 

Imperative: Shaping the Future of 

Agriculture”

• Over 1,800 participants from the 

government, the industry and academia. 

• More than 100 speakers discussed timely 

and cutting edge issues impacting the 

sector

• Forum speakers included, in addition to 

USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue, Agricultural 

ministers of Argentina, Canada, and Mexico 

and several industry leaders.

33
Office of the Chief Economist 34
ERS Market Outlook 

and Data Overview

Cindy Nickerson

Director 

Market and Trade Economics Division

April 21, 2020
36

USDA’s Outlook Program

• Public investment to improve the efficiency of 

markets 

– market information as a “public good.”

• Requires coordinated monthly activity by 

multiple USDA agencies

– Ensures best available data and information

– Establishes Department-wide consensus

– Increases market confidence in outlook estimates
37

ERS Commodity Outlook Products:

Monthly Situation and Outlook Reports

– Monthly: feedgrains, oilseeds, wheat, rice, cotton, sugar, 

livestock, dairy, poultry 

– Quarterly: US agricultural trade

– Semi-annually: vegetables/pulses, fruit and tree nuts

– About 260,000 page views annually
ERS Commodity Outlook Products:

Commodity Webpages
39

ERS Data Products – Popular Examples

• Feed Grains Database 

• Meat Price Spreads 

• Livestock and Meat Trade Data 

• Wheat Data 

• Dairy Data 

• Commodity Costs and Returns 

• U.S. Bioenergy Statistics 

• Farm Income 

• ARMS Farm Financial and Crop Production Practices

• Food Availability Data System 

• And many more...accessed nearly 800,000 times annually
Where to Find Market Information 

and Data on the ERS Website

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/commodity-outlook/
Data Visualizations: 

WASDE at a Glance

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/commodity-outlook/wasde-projections-at-a-glance/

User can choose to 

view estimates for 

cotton, grains & 

oilseeds, sugar, 

dairy, and livestock 

commodities... 
Data Visualizations: 

WASDE at a Glance

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/commodity-outlook/wasde-projections-at-a-glance/

...or select a 

commodity view.
43

ERS Research Reports

ERS research reports examine a variety of 

issues relevant to commodity markets. 

This report:

• examines changes in global demand 

and supply factors that contributed to 

the rising trend in ag commodity prices 

that peaked in 2007/08 and 2011/12, 

and factors contributing to price 

declines during 2014-19.

• projects how global commodity prices 

and trade could change out to 2021/22 

given various assumptions about key 

factors, such as the growth in Gross 

Domestic Product (GDP) and 

agricultural production across 

countries. 
USDA 10-year projections:

prepared annually, reflect available information
45

ERS Near-term Income and Wealth Forecast: 

3 times/year

Feb 5, 2020 forecast 

indicated:

• average profits for the 

sector

• 2020 forecast showed 

higher crop and livestock 

cash receipts, tempered 

by rising input costs and 

lower government 

payments compared to 

’18 and ’19. 

• Next forecast: Sept 2 
Data Visualizations: 

Farm Income Atlas
47

ARMS: Agricultural Resource 

Management Survey

Annual survey of US farms. Supports ERS work on:

– Commodity costs and returns estimates;

– farm income forecasts and estimates;

– Technology adoption; structure and organization of U.S. farms;

– Impacts of commodity and Federal crop insurance programs;

– Conservation practices and policy; Agricultural productivity
48

Consumer Food Data System (CFDS)

• ERS’s Primary Data on Food Item Acquisitions: 

The National Household Food Acquisition and 

Purchase Survey (FoodAPS)

• Food Assistance Administrative Data: SNAP 

(food stamps) and Women Infant Children 

program data

• Proprietary/Commercial Data: Scanner itemlevel retail sales by stores and consumers’ 

purchases 
49

Contacts

Cindy Nickerson

Director

Market and Trade Economics Division

202-694-5626; Cynthia.Nickerson@usda.gov

Utpal Vasavada

Deputy Director for Outlook

Market and Trade Economics Division 

202-694-5540; Utpal.Vasavada@usda.gov
2020 Spring Data Users Meeting

Virtual

Dan Kerestes, Director

Statistics Division
Executive Summaries

New format

More information

More graphics

More colors

Began March 2020

Briefings

Hogs & Pigs

Prospective Plantings

Grain Stocks

Timespan Continue through 2021 March Crop 

Production for completion

Location NASS Website

April 21, 2020
What’s New - Crops

Item County Estimates

Less

Funding was withdrawn by

supporting agency - Reduced 

commodity coverage - ASB notice

published February 13

Changes

Statistical Model to be used for 

County Estimates (survey and

administrative data)

No longer publish Districts

New Publication Rule

Publication 

rule

[30 reports] or [>=3 reports and 

>=25% coverage] or [>= 10 reports 

and >= 10% coverage]

Results Will be publishing measures of 

uncertainty and more counties

April 21, 2020
What’s New - Crops

Item Corn Production Revisions

Previously Revisions published in January for 

previous crop year

Change

Corn previous year acreage, yield, 

and production revisions will take 

place in September. Stocks for all 

quarters in current marketing year 

may also be revised at the same 

time.

Released Information published in 

September Grain Stocks report

Result This will align the revision process 

for corn and soybeans.

April 21, 2020
What’s New - Crops

June Survey New data will be published

What Acres remaining to be planted

Items Corn

Soybeans

Released June 30 – Acreage Report

April 21, 2020
What’s New - Crops

December 

Survey New data will be published

What Acres remaining to be harvested

Items Corn

Soybeans

Released January - Crop Production Annual 

Summary

April 21, 2020
What’s New – Economics, Environmental and 

Demographics

Farm Labor November 21, 2019

Added Annual average gross wage rates 

for livestock workers

Added

United States/Regional annual 

average gross wage rates and base 

wage rates by Standard

Occupational Classification (SOC) 

System

Increased Sample size from 14,000 to 38,000

Possible

Additions

Wage rate by type of worker 

possibly publish base wage rate by 

field and livestock 

April 21, 2020
What’s New – Economics, Environmental and 

Demographics

Agricultural 

Census

Puerto Rico - June 9

Outlying Areas - July 21

Organic Survey October 22 release

Census of 

Horticulture December 8 release

National 

Farmers

Market 

Managers 

Survey

Joint project with AMS

August release

Survey of 

Irrigation 

Organizations

Joint project with ERS

December 17 release

April 21, 2020
What’s New - Livestock

Census of 

Aquaculture Released December 19, 2019

Item Program Changes

Dairy

Georgia added to published states 

for monthly milk production 

program in June 2019

Colony Loss

Suspended July 2019

Resumed data collection and 

program September 2019

Angora Goats

California no longer published. 

Leaving Arizona, New Mexico and 

Texas accounting for 81 percent of 

inventory.

April 21, 2020
All reports 

available at: www.nass.usda.gov

Questions via 

phone

(202) 720 - 3896

(800) 727 - 9540

Questions via 

internet nass@usda.gov