Lance Honig

It was a busy Labor Day holiday weekend, for hundreds of USDA expert crop innumerators who visited farms nationwide in an effort to complete objective yield evaluations of crops for the upcoming USDA Crop Production Report. NASS' Lance Honig said those evaluators were scheduled to look at 7,800 field plots of corn, soybeans, and cotton, checking a variety of issues, including crop maturity levels

As part of its data collection for the upcoming forecast for crop yields and production, the USDA is surveying roughly 20,000 producers across the country, asking what they expect their yields to be. But NASS' Lance Honig said if you're one of the 20,000 who got a survey form it wasn't a random thing where your name was pulled out of hat ...

The 2021 tart cherry crop is larger than previous year crops by over two million tons. "That's really about half of what we would normally see for our tart cherry crop," said NASS' Lance Honig. "So this is the second consecutive year with fairly low production ...

The maple sugar crop is typically a short season, but 2021 is slower than normal. What happens when the season is slower? "To lower production. In fact, production down about 16.7% from the previous season We've had less time for capturing the sap and as a result you see that lower production," noted NASS' Lance Hoenig ...

The USDA says the national winter wheat crop is bigger than many analyst expected. NASS' Lance Honig said the USDA is booting its winter wheat yield forecast a little bit less than 1%. But he said compared to last year, yields are projected to increase by more than 5% ...

Farmers across the west have been plagued this year by extremely dry weather, including producers right here in the Pacific Northwest. Yet, NASS' Lance Honig said right now, it looks like one of the biggest crops in the region has not been greatly impacted ...

According to the latest Acreage Report, hay production is expected to be down again this year. When it comes to alfalfa hay, NASS' Lance Honig said, "16.1 million acres expected to be harvested this year. It's down 0.7% from what was actually harvested last year ...

According to Lance Honig with NASS, nationwide, winter wheat growers put in about 33 million acres, for the first year-over-year acreage increase since 2013. "Our first forecast for harvested area for grain thought, is 24.6 million acres that's up 6 ...

It looks farmers planted more acres of winter wheat than initially thought. Last week, the USDA reported 33.1 million acres of winter wheat. "That's up 3.4% from the from the seeding number back in January. So now 8.8% above what was actually planted last year," noted NASS' Lance Hoenig ...

USDA's NASS has responded for the most part positively to suggestions from the American Farm Bureau Federation how to improve the way reports are compiled. Gary Crawford has more. If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekmedia... Read More ...