ARLINGTON, Va. (DTN) -- USDA is asking farmers and other stakeholders to help examine how USDA can improve its data collection and analysis.

There are growing questions over whether errors in USDA statistics come from changes no one could have predicted or if there are systemic issues with USDA's data collection and reporting.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Fridy at the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum that the department is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to examine USDA's statistical data collection, analysis and research. The RFI posted Monday in the Federal Register.

In her speech, Rollins noted some of the goals of the Outlook Forum are to share USDA's forecasts for the agricultural economy, commodity markets, trade and farm income. "None of these forecasts would be possible without the incredible work of the USDA economists and statisticians who collect and analyze this important data that has historically been considered the gold standard for market reporting," she said.

Still, Rollins said there is room for improvement. Farmers around the country frequently question how numbers come together and what can be done to improve them.

"We want to ensure at USDA that we are framing the status of the market, not driving price outcomes, and that will be a major effort over the next year," Rollins said.

The RFI will include a 45-day comment period that will be used for feedback that USDA will discuss at its 2026 spring data users meeting on April 22 in Kansas City, Missouri.

At a panel discussion at the Outlook Forum on Thursday, USDA officials talked about how data flows into the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) reports as well as how the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) conducts its surveys and statistical work.

Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden said USDA expects its data to be the best to ensure farmers have accurate information to make decisions about their operations.

"Our data has to be the best, because if it is wrong, even if that error is -- as I'm certain it would be -- unintentional, then farmers may be making erroneous decisions because of things that we are telling them," Vaden said.

At the end of the day, Vaden said, USDA economists' job is to provide the truth, even if it is not what people want to hear. "Our economists' job is not to be popular, it is merely to be right -- because that's what we ask of them," Vaden said.

For corn farmers, 2025 was frustrating because NASS continued to upwardly adjust corn planted acreage. Last March, USDA projected 94 million acres, then bumped it up to 95.2 million acres in the June Acreage report. USDA continued to adjust both the corn planted and harvested acreage upward through the January report, coming in at 98.8 million acres planted and 91.3 million acres harvested.

"But obviously, as the year went on, we found out there were a lot more corn acres than that," said Lance Honig, USDA's chair of the Agricultural Statistics Board.

One of the bigger challenges for NASS is that response rates continue to decline for its surveys, especially the longer ones. Surveys are still the primary source of data, but response rates over the past decade have fallen from the 60% range down to 40%-50%.

"There are growing demands on farmers' time, right," Honig said. "It's not just NASS that's reaching out to get information from producers. So right off the bat we've just simply got the challenge that we're fighting for their time."

Beyond surveys, NASS used satellite information as well. For larger crops, satellite information can be pretty accurate, but Honig said it is slow to get the information. Yield data is sometimes quicker but less reliable. "Satellites can only tell you about acreage that is planted," Honig said, noting a soybean field may look great from the sky, but a satellite can't count the pods.

USDA also relies on Farm Service Agency (FSA) acreage data, but that also comes in over a period of time.

"From a planted acres standpoint, you can't beat the certified acres," Honig said.

The Risk Management Agency (RMA) also provides yield data, but that information comes in months after the crop is harvested. Honig said it was important for the market to continue providing that new information. Without it, people would continue trading in a market with inaccurate information about the size of the crop, which came in at more than 17 billion bushels after January's revisions.

"Imagine as big a shock it was in January, when we produced a 17-billion-bushel estimate," Honig said. "Imagine if the market had still been trading way down below 16 billion bushels. How big of a shock would that have been? So, bringing new information to market as quickly as possible provides tremendous benefit."

Corn acreage isn't the only crop question that drew complaints at the forum. One speaker raised questions about USDA's forecasts for sugar imports, saying the department frequently forecasts lower sugar imports than what actually occur, bringing down sugar prices for farmers in the process as well.

USDA's Request for Information: https://www.federalregister.gov/…

Also see, "USDA Grains and Oilseeds Outlook: USDA Projects More Soybean Production, Shaves Corn Acres and Yield," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Chris Clayton can be reached at [email protected]

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