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USDA agencies outline move to machine-readable releases, promise overlap before PDFs end
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Summary
At the USDA spring data users meeting, NASS, ERS and other agencies said they are shifting toward machine-readable data and APIs, pledged transition webinars and overlap periods, and outlined timelines for WASDE and county-estimate publications.
Lance Hoding, chair of the NASS Agricultural Statistics Board, opened the USDA spring data users meeting by asking agency panelists to describe ongoing changes to data releases and access.
Why it matters: users said delays and inconsistent formats make automated analysis harder; agencies said modernization aims to improve timeliness and machine access while preserving reliability and equitable simultaneous release.
NASS director of the statistics division Troy Joshua said NASS is "targeting by the end of the year" for modernization efforts that will reduce reliance on PDFs and move towards more data-driven release mechanisms. He said NASS will host a webinar over the summer to explain transition steps and intends an overlap period so users have time to adapt: "we will make sure it is up and running for some period of time before any PDFs would go away."
ERS emphasized parallel progress. "We have started publishing machine readable files," said Jen, ERS deputy director for outlook and staff analysis, noting several ERS products and data visualizations are already available as machine-readable outputs and interactive visualizations. ERS plans additional machine-readable updates and said users can expect more data suites to be accessible in structured formats.
Mark Jekanowski of the World Agricultural Outlook Board discussed a specific WASDE change: the May hog-price forecast will shift from the soon-to-be-discontinued national base lean hog series to the national daily direct hog report (net price), a change Jekanowski said will cause a slight discontinuity in the series but still represents prices received by producers.
Panelists also addressed archival and hosting changes. Troy Joshua said Cornell-hosted archival services are being retired; USDA is coordinating with the National Agricultural Library to produce a replacement archive and to reduce release-day access issues experienced by some users.
What agencies asked of users: Ryan Scott (FAS) and others urged data users to participate in upcoming demonstrations and user-acceptance testing for new APIs, with specific training and testing dates to be announced prior to late-2025 rollouts.
The agencies did not set firm publication dates for every product beyond the near term; NASS and ERS said release calendars for 2026 are still under discussion. Agencies promised to post Q&A transcripts, links and slide materials to the NASS website and to share follow-up clarifications where needed.
Looking ahead: agencies said modernization will be incremental and accompanied by outreach to data users; NASS and ERS expect to keep older formats available during transition windows so automated workflows can be adapted without disruption.
