Joe Parsons

Over the next several weeks, NASS will conduct its June Agricultural Survey.  The agency said they will contact nearly 92,000 producers across the nation to determine crop acreage and stock levels as of June 1st.     “The June Agricultural Survey is one of the most important and well-known surveys NASS conducts,” said NASS Administrator Joe Parsons. “When producers respond to the surv...

According to the latest census numbers, total sales of aquaculture products in 2023 hit $1.9 billion, an increase of 26% from 2018.  NASS says in 2023, there were 3,453 aquaculture farms with sales in the United States, up 18% during that same time period.  Five st...

According to the 2023 Irrigation and Water Management Survey, which was released Thursday, there were 212,714 farms with 53.1 million irrigated acres, which included 81 million acre-feet of water applied in the United States.  In 2018, the irrigation survey results showed that there were 231,474 farms with 55.9 million...

NASS, in partnership with NRCS, will reach out to farmers, ranchers, and agricultural landowners to gather in-depth information about their conservation practices.  Almost 12,000 operators nationwide have received the 2024 Conservation Effects Assessment Project Survey.     ...

NASS has launched a collection of interactive maps to allow data users to access key Census of Agriculture information. The newly redesigned Ag Census Web Maps application offers the public access to maps and accompanying data to help visualize, download and analyze Census of Agriculture data down to the county level...

From past surveys of farmers, we know what conservation practices growers are using and the effects of those practices on the environment, "but the next logical step is to understand why producers are adopting or not adopting conservation practices..."....

USDA collects some basic agroforestry data in its Census of Agriculture, but the agency announced a new National Agroforestry Survey. The goal is to gather information on five forestry practices. For the first time ever, farmers, ranchers, and ag producers of all kinds will have the opportunity to share the dynamic ways they manage valuable agroforestry resources in detail ...

The USDA's Agricultural Resource Management Survey looks to create a "balance sheet and income statement for all of American farming". "And then also we're taking this deeper dive in to swine operations, so they're will be quite a number of swine operators who are part of the survey," said NASS chair Joe Parsons ...

Even with all that's going, or not going on, due to COVID-19, NASS said if they've got the data, and enough of it, they intend to publish their reports such as the March 31st Perspective Plantings Report and publish them on time.  But the data is not the only thing of the mind of NASS leadership. ...

While, we’re still getting reports from the data compiled in the 2017 Census of Agriculture.  But the USDA is already starting to prepare for the next Census, scheduled for three years down the road.   “Right now, we are soliciting input for 2022 about how we can make the process better, how we can improve the questions that we ask,” said Joe Parsons is with NASS.   Parsons said the C...