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Honig: 2019 NASS data accurate

The head of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Crops Branch says agency data was accurate despite rain-delayed planting that resulted in a 14-state re-survey last July. Lance Honig tells Brownfield there’s excessive rainfall and flooding almost every year, but what caused the reporting issues this year was its magnitude.

“The data that we’ve been reporting has been pretty steady, pretty consistent,” Honig told Brownfield Ag News during the National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention in Kansas City. “I think we’re now finally having most folks realize that those numbers were pretty accurate from the beginning.”

The agency has learned from this past wet season to provide more information to the public about NASS’s data gathering methods and procedures, said Honig.

“Because I think it’s critical to understand not only the methodology, but also just knowing where the data comes from if you’re trying to understand the data itself,” said Honig. “I think that’s one of the big takeaways that already we’ve seen is communication.”

AUDIO: Lance Honig

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