USDA to Survey Cattle Producers in January
US - The U.S. Department of Agriculture is calling on nearly 50,000 cattle operations nationwide to provide the latest and most accurate data on cattle inventories and calf production."The January cattle survey provides Iowa producers the opportunity to serve as the frontline source of data on cattle" said Joe Prusacki, director of the Iowa Field Office of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). "In Iowa, we'll be contacting about 2,000 operations in order to measure trends in beef and dairy cattle inventories, calf crop and cattle operations."
Producers selected for the survey will have the option of responding by telephone, mail, internet, or personal interview with a local NASS representative. The information is a critical decision-making tool for the cattle industry. It helps producers make informal marketing decisions and plan for herd expansion or reduction. It also helps packers and government evaluate expected slaughter volume for future months and determine potential supplies for export.
Survey results will be published in NASS's biannual Cattle report on February 1, 2008. The report will provide national-level estimates of total inventory of beef and milk cows, bulls, replacement heifers, other heifers, steers, calves, and number of calves born during the previous year. In addition, NASS's Farms, Land in Farms, and Livestock Operations report, also published in February, will include data on the number of operations with cattle and calves, and percent of inventory by herd size.
Source: Brownfield