The agricultural industry has developed many mechanisms for reporting the size and progress of crops and other agricultural commodities. Most widely adopted by the industry is the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service program (NASS). To ensure accuracy of these reports, farmers should provide NASS full cooperation. We will vigorously defend the confidentiality of individual farm information. Michigan Farm Bureau will continue working with NASS to improve and simplify information gathering, such as exploring the use of producer information already reported to the Farm Service Agency. We encourage the use of modern technology, including satellite imagery, on-farm electronic data, and a streamlined data collection system.
We recommend USDA and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) adequately fund their full portion of this cost-share service. Accurate and timely third-party statistics are essential to the further development of Michigan agriculture, finding new markets, and attracting new processing facilities. We support cooperative agreements with Michigan State University, MDARD and private sources for funding state-specific statistical analysis.
We encourage producers to cooperate with NASS in conducting the U.S. Census of Agriculture. We support distribution of the data to producers in a timely and usable format.
We support developing an accurate system to calculate county yields based on actual test results or scientific data considering irrigated vs. dry land yields and seed corn production.