The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will gather information about farm economics and production practices from barley, cotton, sorghum, and wheat producers across the Mountain Regional states of Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming. The data being collected are part of the 2019 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). 

“ARMS is a vital survey that tracks how farmers use technology to manage production of their major field crops,” said William Meyer, Director, Mountain Regional Field Office. “The survey helps policymakers and farm groups understand the factors driving costs of production and returns from crop production.” 

NASS enumerators will conduct the survey in-person starting as early as September, and recommend farmers have their fertilizer and pesticide spray records available to speed up the survey process. This year, NASS is reaching out to over 1,500 barley producers, 2,000 cotton producers, 1,000 sorghum producers, and 3,000 wheat producers across the country. 

The ARMS survey is conducted in three phases from May 2019 through April 2020. The first phase screened participants to make sure they had the commodity of interest and would accurately represent the entire U.S. farm sector. In this current phase, NASS will collect information on production practices and chemical use for the specific commodities mentioned above. In the final phase, NASS will survey producers on cost of production, farm income, and production expenditures. 

Data provided by farmers is confidential and protected by law. NASS further safeguards the privacy of all respondents by publishing only aggregate data, ensuring that no individual operation or producer can be identified.