Streamlining crop reporting to USDA

Farm and Ranch 28, 2011 The USDA has started an Acreage Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative. Michael Scuse, acting Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service explains it.

Scuse: “Where we have the Farm Service Agency, Risk Management Agency, NRCS and NASS working together to bring some commonality to how we operate and the terminology that we use. To give our farmers and ranchers a way to do one report rather than two or three different reports now under acreage and what types of crops its planted in.”

Scuse says one objective is to have farmers be able to report their acreage from home online. Additionally,

Scuse: “But our ultimate goal is for those that have precision ag equipment on the their planters and in their combines to actually use the information that is collected from that equipment, to be downloaded directly to the Farm Service Agency and to the crop insurance agent, so that it will simplify the process even further. That is our ultimate goal.”

Scuse says this type of streamlining will benefit more than farmers.

Scuse: “This will ultimately save the taxpayers money. So, not only are we providing a service for the farmers and ranchers but ultimately we are going to be saving the taxpayers a great deal of money with this initiative. That‘s why I think it‘s one of the most important things that we are doing.”

USDA is looking at implementing the initiative over the next two years.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.

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