IARN — It is one of those busy years for the agriculture industry regarding government reports. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is looking to have farmers finish up their 2022 Census of Agriculture forms and have them sent back. Congress is debating the 2023 Farm Bill. Both things will have an impact on agriculture. What may be disheartening though, is that the Census of Ag data will not be available for the Farm Bill negotiations. This means that Congress is using data from 2017 in 2023.
USDA National Ag Statistics Service (NASS) Administrator Herbert Hamer talked about the timing of the data release. He said that not only is the data behind schedule, but they are still accepting answers for last year’s census. This means the release date of February 2024 will be after the Farm Bill is put into place for the next five years.
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