October 1, 2019
Weekly Crop Progress/Condition Reports
As an agent I never got excited about doing these. It wasn’t much work, but you had to remember it first thing on a Monday morning or you would get that phone call. And it always felt like guesswork. How was I supposed to know the exact percentage of corn that had been harvested or the soybeans that were “dropping leaves” for the entire county much less the entire district?
Now that I work with some of these data, I see the importance of these numbers at the state and national level. We may not know to the exact percentage, but what we can provide gives a good barometer of what our farmers are dealing with. A year of exceptionally high moisture has also brought these reports into the spotlight, as everyone was scrambling to get a handle on how bad things were and if disaster aid would be needed. These reports DO matter!
If you are new to weekly crop reports or have gotten somewhat lax on doing them, please consider these points:
• KSRE has a Memorandum of Understanding to assist NASS in this data collection…it is our job!
• Your county’s report is part of the most widely circulated report that NASS publishes, viewed by federal/state/local government, producers, agri-businesses, media, Extension researchers, etc.
o If you have never looked at the data, you can find it here for Kansas: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Kansas/index.php.
o Or here for national: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/National_Crop_Progress/.
• Information is provided by FSA personnel and Extension agents for each county
• If no report is received for your county, there is no representation in the district, state, or national totals that week
Please discuss with your KSRE colleagues in your county or district who are responsible for doing the reports and make sure it is getting done. The data entry is online and is due 10 a.m. Monday morning. If you are going to be out of the office, you can fill out the report as early as 8 a.m. on Friday with anticipation of the weather over the weekend.
If you have any questions on completing the crop progress reports, our NASS contact is Landon Stauffer and can be reached at 800-582-6443 or landon.stauffer@usda.gov. For general NASS questions, feel free to contact Doug Bounds, Kansas State Statistician, at the above number or doug.bounds@usda.gov.