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USDA: Agriculture Counts!
By King Whetstone, Regional Director, USDA-NASS, Northeastern Regional Field Office
02:49PM / Tuesday, February 15, 2022
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In Accessing Vital Agricultural Data
 
As a new year kicks off, our agency reflects on major milestones achieved during 2021. The agricultural community gained two new geospatial decision support tools, and will soon have first-time data on hemp production, conservation practice adoption motivations, farmer demographics, and agroforestry practices.
 
Also, throughout 2021, we conducted extensive research, development, and live tests of numerous core data collection — and dissemination-related systems. This ongoing work aims to increasingly modernize how we interact with the public, making it easier for farmers and ranchers to ensure their voice is counted and enhance access for all those seeking National Agricultural Statistics Service statistics.
 
The first geospatial product that launched in 2021, the "Crop Condition and Soil Moisture Analytics" tool, provides soil moisture data important for crop planting, yield forecasting and weather monitoring. The second, Cropland CROS, is a web-based, interactive query, mapping, and distribution system for U.S. crops. It updates the well-established Cropland Data Layer or CDL interface to provide intuitive navigation, searchability, analysis and export functionality.
 
In addition to delivering new policy-relevant surveys and geospatial decision-making tools, last year, we made remarkable progress behind the scenes to replace older statistical systems. These improvements will enable us to integrate new sources of data, better collect and use information, and create a more equitable, user-friendly interface for the public. Through modernizations that reduce the time needed to complete surveys and otherwise make response more convenient, we will reach more producers and continue to provide data that reflect the broad diversity of America's farmers and ranchers.
 
The five major NASS modernization efforts are: NASS Respondent Portal – a new way of reporting agricultural data online; streamlined data reporting; email and text survey reminders; Integrated modeling and geospatial estimation system (IMAGES); and an enhanced, interactive data release system. 
 
Agroforestry Survey
 
Data collection began Feb. 1 for the first-ever National Agroforestry Survey, which will conclude on April 5. The survey was mailed to 1,842 farmers in the 11 Northeastern states to gather information on the five agroforestry practices used for climate, conservation and production benefits, including windbreaks, silvopasture, riparian forest buffers, alley cropping as well as forest farming and multi-story cropping.
 
Ag producers have the opportunity to share the different ways they manage valuable agroforestry resources. The data will inform programs and policy to benefit both the landowners and farmers as well as the environment.
 
The survey is conducted cooperatively with the USDA National Agroforestry Center , which is a partnership between USDA's Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service. The NAC will release the summarized data in studies, press releases, and publications such as highlights. Highlights will give an overview of how agroforestry practices are used in regions across the United States.
 
For more information, visit www.nass.usda.gov/go/Agroforestry. Subscribe to Agroforestry Connection for new agroforestry-related publications and other items of interest.
 
Northeast Region Sheep and Goat Inventory
 
In New England, all sheep and lamb inventory in New England on Jan. 1 totaled 58,000 head, up 5 percent from Jan. 1, 2021. Breeding-sheep inventory increased to 46,000 head, up 2 percent from 45,000 on Jan. 1, 2021.
 
The 2021 lamb crop of 39,000 head was up 3 percent from 2020. The 2021 lambing rate was 118 lambs per 100 ewes one year and older on Jan. 1, 2021, down 4 percent from 2020.
 
Shorn wool production in New England during 2021 was 190,000 pounds, up 9 percent from 2020. Sheep and lambs shorn totaled 27,000 head, up 8 percent from 2020. The average price paid for wool sold in 2021 was 85 cents per pound for a total value of $162,000, up 16 percent from $140,000 in 2020.
 
Sheep death loss during 2021 totaled 2,000 head, a decrease of 9 percent from 2020. Lamb death loss increased 7 percent from 2,800 head in 2020 to 3,000 head in 2021. Milk goat inventory was 18,200 head, up 7 percent from Jan. 1, 2021 total.
 
Northeast Region Cattle Inventory
 
All cattle and calves in New England, as of Jan. 1, totaled 444,000 head, up 1 percent from the previous year. All cows and heifers that have calved, at 228,000, is down 1 percent from the 229,000 on Jan. 1, 2021. Beef cows, at 42,600 head, are up 3 percent from a year ago. Milk cows, at 185,000 head, are down 1 percent from the previous year. The 2021 calf crop was estimated at 174,000 head, up 2 percent from 2020.
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To Growers: I would like to thank you for your contribution to U.S. agriculture and support of our programs. I hope you will continue to support NASS by returning your survey form as soon as possible or answering our questions over the telephone or if someone comes to visit. Be assured, as with all NASS surveys, the information respondents provide is confidential by law. NASS safeguards the privacy of all responses and publishes only state- and national-level data, ensuring that no individual operation or producer can be identified. All reports are available on the NASS website at www.nass.usda.gov.
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