Source: USDA NASS
Beginning in late December, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will spend several months gathering information about farm economics and production practices from farmers and ranchers across Texas as the agency conducts the third and final phase of the 2016 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS).
“ARMS is the only survey program that provides an annual update to the financial picture based on both income and expense data,” said Wilbert Hundl Jr., director of the NASS Southern Plains Region. “The results of this survey will serve as a primary source of information for numerous local and federal policies and programs that affect Texas farms and farm families.”
NASS conducts ARMS jointly with USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS). In an effort to obtain the most accurate data, the federal agencies will reach out to more than 30,000 producers nationwide, including over 2,600 in Texas, between December 2016 and April 2017. The survey asks producers to provide in-depth data on their operating expenditures, production costs and household characteristics.
“We realize that this survey is lengthy and some producers may have questions or need clarification,” explained Hundl. “In February, our interviewers will begin reaching out to those farmers who have not yet responded to answer any questions they may have and help them fill out their questionnaire.”
In addition to accurate data, NASS is strongly committed to confidentiality. The agency will only publish data in an aggregate form. This helps safeguard the confidentiality of all responses, ensuring no individual respondent or operation can be identified.
The economic data gathered in ARMS will be published in the annual Farm Production Expenditures report on Aug. 3, 2017. All NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov. ERS also plans to release a series of reports based on ARMS data. All of these reports will be available on the agency’s site at www.ers.usda.gov.