USDA data users meeting spotlights tool modernization, dashboards and major program payments

Lance Honig, chair of the National Agricultural Statistics Service Agricultural Statistics Board, opened the USDA NASS fall data users meeting and walked attendees through housekeeping and how to submit questions for tomorrow’s open forum.

The session featured brief agency presentations focusing on data tools, forthcoming releases and program updates. Paul Trupo, senior director at the Foreign Agricultural Service, said FAS is modernizing its export sales reporting system and expects to begin user testing early next year with a target of launching “by the end of 2025.” He also highlighted geospatial tools added to the FAS site, including the Gattis GIS system and Crop Explorer visualizations.

Mark Janowski, chairman of the World Agricultural Outlook Board, noted staffing changes in WASDE panels and announced the Outlook Forum scheduled for Feb. 27–28 in Arlington, Virginia, which will be live-streamed. Janowski described WASDE’s monthly forecasts as a USDA-wide consensus product.

Troy Joshua, director of the Statistics Division at NASS, reviewed recent and upcoming NASS releases, including the 2022 Census of Agriculture (released Feb. 13, 2024) and scheduled special studies: an Irrigation Water Management survey slated for Oct. 31, 2024, and the Census of Aquaculture scheduled for Dec. 16, 2024. Joshua also described NASS’s market-sensitive report procedures and invited users to facility tours and secretary briefings.

Kelly Maguire, assistant administrator at the Economic Research Service, summarized ERS research outputs and data work: more than 400 publications in FY2024, efforts to make data machine-readable and 508-compliant, updates to the agricultural baseline out to 2033, and numerous visualization tools (Amber Waves, Charts of Note). Maguire said ERS research shows roughly 8% of U.S. farms have renewable energy systems and invited attendees to a deep-dive ERS breakout on cotton data.

Tim Grain, FSA data and analytics officer, reviewed several producer-facing programs and data products. He noted an ELAP decision-support tool (developed with FarmRaise), an active sign-up period for the Food Safety Certification for Specialty Crops reimbursement program (applications for 2024 assistance accepted through Jan. 31, 2025), and an ELAP expansion to assist dairy producers affected by H5N1. Grain said FSA has launched a public Tableau dashboard for the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) 2022 and reported that FSA has distributed more than $2.1 billion under ERP 2022. He also summarized recent October payment runs: more than $400 million disbursed through ARC/PLC payments and more than $1.7 billion through the Conservation Reserve Program, and announced $58 million in additional assistance for organic dairy producers (ODMAP).

Jason Carwell, acting director for Specialty Crops Market News at AMS, described AMS’s expanding market-news offerings, API access and Tableau visualizations, and said AMS will demo an LMR live cattle dashboard in the afternoon breakout. Carwell highlighted the ongoing cattle contracts library (CCL) pilot that provides contract transparency for cattle producers.

Joseph Campo of the U.S. Census Bureau reminded attendees that monthly international trade in goods and services data (the FT900 joint release) will include September data on Nov. 5 and is available on USA Trade Online.

Organizers closed by reminding attendees to return for tomorrow’s noon open forum for live Q&A with panelists and announced that Joe Parsons is the new NASS administrator following Hubert Hamr’s retirement.