AgWired

Previously, we talked about how USDA officials are concerned about how possible budget cuts will affect their ability to keep providing the timely, accurate reports on which so many farmers depend. And they’re not the only ones concerned. In our continuing series looking at the recent Farm Foundation webinar on data collection, we hear from Paul Hughes of Nestle Purina PetCare, who makes a baseball analogy about just how important USDA is.

“The USDA is the global unbiased umpire of the grains and oilseeds markets,” Hughes told those listening to the hour-long webinar. He went on to cite the example of Don Denkinger, the major league baseball umpire who admittedly made a bad call (especially if you are a St. Louis Cardinals fan) in the 1985 World Series and possibly cost the Cardinals a championship that year (but Kansas City Royals fans might dispute that). He said in the game of commodity markets, USDA is looked upon to give good, unbiased information and sometimes only gets attention, just like Denkinger, when the reports are controversial or unexpected.

Hughes said it comes down to Economics 101: having equal information for all parties. He worries that if USDA is not able to provide these reports (due to possible budget cuts) equally to all market participants, then that information might only come from parties with vested interests in the outcomes. He cited the case of Indonesian palm oil, the most commonly consumed vegetable oil in the world. That country produces half of the world’s palm oil supply, but provides the world with no data on production stocks or consumption. “What this does is leave the market ripe for all sorts of manipulations by those with the best independent information.”

Hughes said USDA levels the playing field for all producers, especially the small ones. And he says this unbiased information must be preserved.

You can here more of what Hughes had to say here: Paul Hughes, Nestle Purina PetCare during Farm Foundation Webinar on Data Collection

Plus, his slide show to go along with the audio is available here.

And you can hear the entire hour-long Farm Foundation webinar here:
Farm Foundation Webinar on Data Collection

At a time when farmers rely more and more on good information, officials at the USDA worry that budget cuts are going to make their job of providing information to those farmers more difficult.

“We were being stressed right now in an environment not conducive to public information,” said Joe Prusacki, Director, Statistics Division, at the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) during a recent webinar hosted by the Farm Foundation. Prusacki said while the U.S. Congress’ joint budget committee has increased the amount of money to NASS to $158.6 million (more than the $149.5 million passed by the House and $152.6 million passed by the Senate), it’s still less than what his agency asked for and leaves them with some hard decisions about what to keep and what they’ll have to cut. He said they can either reduce the number of reports or reduce the number of inputs and sample sizes, and thus the quality and accuracy, to those reports. Neither one is a very palatable proposal for either the USDA or producers who rely on those reports. But he says there are six core reports they’ll continue no matter what: 1. the quarterly hogs and pigs survey; 2. the monthly cattle on feed survey; 3. the prospective plantings/acreage report; 4. grain stocks; 5. crop production and; 6. monthly prices.

Prusacki went on to point out that another problem NASS has is knowing who uses this data.

“With the way data are provided today via the Internet, there’s not that personal connection, and many times, we don’t know who our data users are until we have program changes,” he said. Prusacki added there is also a disconnect between providers of information to the USDA and those who use that information when NASS puts it back out for consumption. He says while producer GROUPS are interested in providing good, accurate information, individual farmers sometimes see it as an intrusion to their privacy. And that leads to lawmakers asking if his agency really needs that information and if certain programs need to exist… and thus, the budget issues NASS now faces.

You can here more of what Prusacki had to say here: Joe Prusacki, USDA NASS during Farm Foundation Webinar on Data Collection

Plus, his slide show to go along with the audio is available at this link.

And you can hear the entire hour-long Farm Foundation webinar here:
Farm Foundation Webinar on Data Collection