| JANUARY 20, 2012 -- Farmers who cooperate with the National Agricultural Statistics Service are not only helping the agency. They also may be helping themselves.
Mark Schleusener, deputy director of NASS’s Illinois office, recently presented farmers with an overview of the agency’s mission and tactics. The two major points he would like to make are that NASS is apolitical and all information gathered is confidential.
NASS collects and analyzes a wide range of data concerning farm production. Among other things, entities such as the University of Illinois use that data to help farmers be more productive.
The agency reports not only information about output, but also costs for inputs purchased by farmers. That provides an accurate picture of agriculture, according to Schleusener.
“It’s very important that the policymakers in Illinois get this information,” he said. “I am not a policymaker; I’m a bean counter. The people who make policy should know as much as we know about what it costs to farm and the risks you take financially to run your own business.
“In the future, if you get one of our questionnaires in the mail, please fill it out. You’ll provide a service to agriculture by providing accurate information.”
Schleusener equates the mission of his agency to that of sports officials who enforce the rules of the game.
“We provide information for other people to use. They interpret it and synthesize it,” he said. “We believe that a consistent set of information about agriculture helps markets react. They react to supply and demand rather than speculation. NASS reports are free. We are trying to provide a level playing field.
“We refer to ourselves as the umpire or referee. We are not going to tell you when to take your starting pitcher out of the game. We are not going to tell you when to bunt. We’re going to call fair and foul, safe and out.”
NASS is not only neutral, but has the resources to perform the task at hand better than any other entity, according to Schleusener. And the agency delivers its data evenly.
“Everyone gets the information at the same time. And they are unbiased,” Schleusener said. “If these reports did not exist, there would still be crop reports, by people who are not unbiased, who have a vested interest in telling people there’s a lot of crop out there or there’s a small crop out there.
“Imagine making your own crop production forecast, calling your friends. And you could probably get a pretty good forecast on the local level. Or the state. But what about the rest of the Corn Belt? And, particularly, what’s happening overseas? Individual farmers don’t have the resources to do that.”
NASS provides regular reports, including weekly crop condition updates and yield forecasts. The agency also publishes information concerning livestock, grain storage and other agricultural data.
In addition, the agency provides regular reports on prices of fuel, fertilizer and other inputs.
“In June, we do something special,” Schleusener said. “We go to 400 pieces of land, find the people who operate the land and our field staff tabulates that information. It’s very accurate. When you actually measure land in Illinois and see crops in the ground, you can get an accurate estimate of the major crops in Illinois.”
Such a compilation is done only once a year.
“We try to spend the government’s money wisely,” Schleusener said.
He appealed to farmers to cooperate with NASS.
“If someone comes to you with one of these aerial photographs and asks if you have land right here and what crops did you plant, please support them,” he said. “They should be very respectful. That’s one of the first things we teach our employees — to be respectful of your time.” |
