USDA Survey To Gauge Farmland Ownership And Farm Economics

Feb 19, 2015

The USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) has begun surveying farmland owners to measure financial impacts and challenges of land ownership. Landowners were sent forms for the survey, called Tenure, Ownership, and Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL), at the end of December, according to a NASS press release.

TOTAL is a part of the Census of Agriculture program, which means response to this survey is mandatory. The TOTAL survey program will collect data from both farm operators and landlords who are not farm operators to create a complete picture of farm costs, land ownership, demographics about farm operators and landlords, and improvements made to farmland and buildings, among other characteristics. More than 80,000 farmland owners and producers across the United States will receive TOTAL forms, including 1,400 in Georgia.

In February and March, NASS interviewers will begin reaching out to producers and landowners who have not yet responded to answer any questions they may have and help them fill out their questionnaires.

Information provided by respondents is confidential by law. The agency safeguards the confidentiality of all responses, ensuring no individual respondent or operation can be identified.

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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.