Mar 7 -- The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) invites public comment by May 6, 2024 on four planned data collections--the 2024 Tenure, Ownership and Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL) survey; the List Sampling Frame Surveys; the Agricultural Labor Survey; and the Census of Horticultural Specialties.
1) 2024 Tenure, Ownership and Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL) survey
NASS will request approval from OMB for the 2024 Tenure, Ownership and Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL) surveys to be conducted as follow-on surveys to the 2022 Census of Agriculture and are authorized by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 as amended.
The 2024 TOTAL surveys will be conducted in 2025, referencing the calendar year of 2024. In 2025 the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) Phase 3 (OMB # 0535–0275) will be suspended for a period of one year. The scope of the TOTAL survey is greater than that of the ARMS 3 survey. To maintain the ARMS 3 data series, data will be gleaned from the TOTAL surveys to replace the 2024 ARMS 3 data collection.
The TOTAL survey will be conducted in two phases. The first phase will be the creation of a list of land owners who rent out land for agricultural purposes. These landlords will be excluded from the sample if they are also active farm or ranch operators as these entities are part of the phase II version 1 sampling population discussed below. The area segments that are used during the June Area Survey (OMB # 0535–0213) will be used as the target areas. NASS will compare the land inside these segments with land ownership data from the Farm Services Agency (FSA) along with property tax information purchased from CoreLogic (a privately owned company). After the removal of any duplication within this list NASS will have the target sample for the Landlord only version of the survey which will be conducted in Phase II. The current NASS List Frame of known farmers and ranchers will be used to create the sample for the Operator version of the survey. No list building will be conducted in Phase I for the operator questionnaire.
The second phase of the survey will include data collection and reporting using two versions of the TOTAL questionnaires. Version 1 of the TOTAL survey will target farm and ranch operators in all 50 States. The sample will be drawn from a list of all known farming operations that sold at least $1,000 in agricultural products in 2024. The stratified sample will be representative of the farm operator population. The sample will be large enough to publish State level data for the 25 largest agricultural producing States based on value of sales. These 25 core States account for a significant amount of the total value of agricultural products produced in the three-year period of 2020–2022. Version 2 of the TOTAL survey will target individuals who own and rent out farm land in all 50 States. Individuals who are both farm operators and landlords will be excluded from the Version 2 sample since they are included in the Version 1 sample population. The Version 2 population should be large enough to publish State level data for the 25 core States. The remaining 25 States that will be included in the survey will have their data combined in the all other States category, so that US level estimates can be published.
Data collection for both Versions should begin around January 1, 2025, using 2024 as the reference period. A final report is targeted to be published in October 2025.
TOTAL:
https://www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/TOTAL/
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2024-04832
2) List Sampling Frame Surveys
The List Sampling Frame Surveys are used to develop and maintain a complete list of possible farm and ranch operations. The goal is to produce for each State a relatively complete, current, and unduplicated list of names for statistical sampling for agricultural operation surveys and the Census of Agriculture. Data from these agricultural surveys are used by government agencies and educational institutions in planning, farm policy analysis, and program administration. More importantly, farmers and ranchers use NASS data to help make informed business decisions on what commodities to produce and when is the optimal time to market their products. NASS data is useful to farmers in comparing their farming practices with the economic and environmental data published by NASS.
Revision to burden hours will be needed due to 1) The survey not being conducted in 2024 as the 2024 survey is conducted as part of the Census of Agriculture ICR (OMB Control Number 0535–0236). Annually, NASS obtains lists of farm and ranch operators from different crop and livestock organizations. Before adding these names to our list of active operators we will contact the individuals to determine if they qualify as a farm or ranch and then collect basic information from them on the size and type of operation they have. These data will be used to eliminate any duplication we may have with names already on our list.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2024-04831
3) Agricultural Labor Survey
The Agricultural Labor Survey provides quarterly statistics on the number of agricultural workers, hours worked, and wage rates. Number of workers and hours worked are used to estimate agricultural productivity; wage rates are used in the administration of the H–2A Program and for setting Adverse Effect Wage Rates. Survey data are also used to carry out provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act. NASS intends to request that the survey be approved for another 3 years.
This information collection consists of three individual surveys. In April, NASS will collect data for the January and April quarters and in October, NASS will collect data for both the July and October quarters. Following these two surveys NASS will re-contact approximately 500 operators to conduct quality control surveys to help insure the quality of the data collected. NASS also plans to conduct some cognitive testing during this renewal period.
Farm Labor Survey:
https://www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Farm_Labor/
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2024-04850
4) Census of Horticultural Specialties
NASS will seek OMB approval for the 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties survey to be conducted as a follow-on survey from the 2022 Census of Agriculture and authorized by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (title X—Horticulture and Organic Agriculture) as amended.
The 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties will use as a sampling universe; every respondent on the 2022 Census of Agriculture who reported production and sales of $10,000 or more of horticultural specialty crops, and is still in business in 2024. In addition, NASS also plans to contact all new operations that have begun producing horticultural specialty products since the completion of the 2022 Census of Agriculture. Data collection will begin around January 1, 2025, for production and sales data for 2024. A final report will be published around December 2025. Data will be published at both the US and State levels where possible.
CHS:
https://www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Census_of_Horticultural_Specialties/index.php
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2024-04849