Mann, Costa, Moran and Colleagues Urge USDA to Restore NASS Surveys

US Representative Tracey Mann of Kansas, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry, along with Representative Jim Costa of California, Ranking Member of the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry, and US Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas, led 70 of their colleagues in penning a letter to US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack urging him to reverse the US Department of Agriculture's decision to cancel or discontinue several National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reports.

The reports provide American farmers, ranchers and agricultural producers with transparent livestock, grain and fiber market insights as they position themselves to effectively manage risk and build supply and demand estimates, which help determine commodity sourcing plans to remain operational.

"Droughts, wildfires, sky-high inflation, market fluctuation and input costs have all driven producers' risk to an all-time high," said Representative Mann. "USDA's decision to cancel the July Cattle Report and discontinue the Cotton Yield Objective Survey and all County Estimates for Crops and Livestock only exacerbates that risk. Farmers, ranchers and agricultural producers in the Big First and across the country are doing their best as they bear the weight of feeding, clothing and fueling the world. Secretary Vilsack should immediately reverse this decision and give our producers at least some of the certainty they desperately need and deserve."

"The USDA's annual reports on markets and statistics help our farmers and ranchers make informed decisions on the crops they are going to plant and how they manage their livestock," said Senator Moran. "Our producers face uncertainty from the weather, market demands, inflation and more. Eliminating these resources creates greater uncertainty for the agriculture industry and harms our producers' ability to forecast future demands in the market."

The letter is supported by the National Grain and Feed Association, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, National Cotton Council, American Farm Bureau Federation, Livestock Marketing Association, Beef Alliance and the American Livestock Markets and Dealers Association.

(Information courtesy Representative Mann's Office.)