USDA November Crop Report to Include Field Survey Data as Shutdown Drags On

By Julie Ingwersen

CHICAGO, Nov. 5 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is collecting survey-based data for its upcoming crop production report scheduled for release on November 14, an official with the agency’s statistical arm said on Wednesday, despite the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.

The report will include the government’s first updated estimates of U.S. corn and soybean yield and production since September 12, when most of the Midwestern harvest was not yet underway. The October crop report was not issued due to the shutdown. The USDA’s reports are closely monitored by grain traders globally.

Along with corn and soybeans, the upcoming report will include data on cotton, peanuts, potatoes, rice, sorghum, sugarbeets and sugarcane.

The November crop production report normally includes U.S. corn and soybean yield estimates based on farmer surveys as well as field samples.

“We are collecting the necessary survey and administrative data to support the forecasts in the report,” Lance Honig, an official with the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, said in an email to Reuters.

“We’re using normal collection procedures for both surveys,” Honig said, adding that the agency has been collecting field samples all along.

A year ago, the USDA surveyed approximately 5,840 farmers for its November crop production report.

(Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; Editing by Bill Berkrot)