Illinois farmers are encouraged to promptly complete and return the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) survey arriving in their mailboxes this week.

The survey will be used to estimate county-level crop yields for 2016.  These estimates will be used directly by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) to implement the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) – County programs.  Most Illinois corn farmers are enrolled in ARC programs.

“A large majority of farms participate in these programs, and you can make a big difference when they need help,” said Mark Schleusener, Illinois State Statistician. 

“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 (FOIA).”

Farmers can respond to the survey by mail or online via the NASS secure website.  A minimum of 30 reports in each county are needed to publish county-level results.  If response sizes are not adequate, farmers will start receiving phone calls to gather the information needed to publish county-level data.

NASS will continue data collection into January 2017.  Results for corn and soybean crop yields will be published in February 2017.

For more information, call the NASS Heartland Regional Field Office at (800) 551-1014.