Farmers Are Losing Faith in the USDA's Numbers

[UpInArms]

America's corn crop didn't just surprise traders last year, it caught the federal agency in charge of counting it off guard, too. The New York Times reports that the Department of Agriculture initially said 86.8 million acres of corn would be harvested in 2025, only to quietly revise that figure multiple times and finally land at 91.3 million acres—about 5% higher, with the figure before the final revision off by an area bigger than Delaware. Former USDA chief economist Seth Meyer calls it "a miss," and it's fueling broader worries about whether the department's closely watched crop reports are still as dependable as markets assume.

The size of the miss, which caused a sharp drop in already low commodity prices, was unprecedented, Reuters reports. It's more common for the department to revise numbers downward by relatively small amounts, reflecting decreases in acreage caused by bad weather. Deep staff cuts, lower farmer response rates to surveys, and political pressure are all colliding with the growing use of remote sensing and AI for production reports, the Times reports. The National Agricultural Statistics Service, which produces the reports, was hit especially hard by DOGE's job cuts last year, losing around 300 of its 800 employees.

A bit more at:


https://www.newser.com/story/388398/corn-undercount-spurs-fears-over-key-usda-farm-data.html

[Walleye]

1. I guess it's obvious our current government doesn't want us to know the facts about anything

[magicarpet]

2. Fudging the numbers is Team trDUMP's default standard modus operandi.

So what,.. what is the big deal here ?

The loyalists of Team trDUMP like to pull numbers out of their bum-bum. The point is to conjure and fudge the numbers - so The Orange King/Tyrant always looks good on paper. Making him shine every moment of the day is absolutely paramount.

Get with the program !

[Mysterian]

3. Incompetent republican fools and liars in charge of our government

The idiots in our nation finally have the clown show they somuch desired.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Rachel did a great segment on this

Link to tweet

#BREAKING: Legendary #Maddow: “The Trump administration in its infinite wisdom, also this year, radically has screwed up its agriculture numbers, which has turned out to be a huge expensive catastrophe…From the NYT: ‘After Trump’s Agriculture Department made its estimate last Summer of how much corn American farmers would harvest this year, ‘the projection had to be repeatedly revised upward until in January the department found 1.3 million more acres of corn that it had not accounted for in its earlier estimate.’ 1.3 million acres is an area ‘larger than Delaware.’”

[Torchlight]

5. Lysenkoism, GOP-style.

If the wrapping is looks nice enough, the box can be empty with little consequence.