USDA announces new annual survey

Aug 11, 2020

The questionnaire asks farmers how the ag department can improve

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Starting this year, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will be conducting a new annual survey.

The 2020 USDA Farmer Survey is randomly polling 28,000 American farmers over the next few weeks.

The USDA started accepting responses on Aug. 6. Farmers will have about six weeks to participate in the 20-question survey. Any producer interested in taking part can do so.

Officials at the USDA hope the responses will give them insight into how the ag department can improve the Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Risk Management Agency services it provides to the U.S. ag industry.

“We want to hear from our customers so we can learn what we’re doing right and where we’re missing the mark,” Bill Northey, under secretary for farm production and conservation, said in an Aug. 7 statement. “Good data is critical to good decision-making. The more responses we receive, the better we can understand what we need to do to improve our services to America’s farmers, ranchers and private forestland owners.”

The survey is part of the President’s Management Agenda, which mandates High-Impact Service Providers (HISP) must perform assessments to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.

President George W. Bush implemented the reviews during his presidency in 2001.

Federal services with “high-impact customer-facing services” are considered HISPs, the Office of Management and Budget says.

Farms.com has reached out to farmers and industry groups for comment.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.