Corn farmers will soon be receiving a questionnaire designed to collect data that will be used in estimating county level yields for 2015. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will begin mailing these forms in the middle of October to more than 8,500 producers across the state of Illinois. IL Corn encourages you to participate in this survey.

“We’ve been forecasting state-level yields since August 12 and now we are beginning to gather the data needed for county level estimates,” said Mark Schleusener, Illinois State Statistician. “The results can have a direct impact farmers and ranchers around the state.”

“For example, the USDA’s Risk Management Agency relies on survey results to determine when to make crop loss insurance payments. In addition, USDA’s Farm Service Agency uses the data in its disaster assistance program calculations. With recent flooding across the state, these data are critical to the agriculture industry.”

“As required by Federal law, all responses are completely confidential,” Schleusener continued. “We safeguard the privacy of all respondents, ensuring that no individual operation or producer can be identified. Individual responses are also exempt from the Freedom Of Information Act.”

“Many producers respond by mail and also on our secure website. After a while, we will begin contacting producers on the phone to ensure adequate response rates in as many counties as possible. Because the sample size is so large, we will be continuing data collection in to January of 2016. Results for corn and soybeans will be published in February 2016.”