During the first two weeks of December, the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will be surveying 77,000 producers nationwide.
The survey aims to determine how many acres of crops, such as grains and oilseeds, were planted this year, and whether yields were above or below expectations.
"This is one of the largest and most important surveys that NASS conducts each year. The information that we gather will be used to make the final 2006 estimates of crop production and on-farm stocks, at both the state and national levels," said Carol House, NASS deputy administrator for programs and products.
"These estimates are highly anticipated and widely used by the entire agricultural community - from producers to international buyers, from elevators to transportation providers, and from processors to policymakers," she added.
NASS has started contacting producers in 48 states, asking for data on total acres, acres planted and harvested, total yield and production. NASS will also collect data on quantities of grains and oilseeds stored on-farm.
Once the information is compiled and analyzed, it will be published in a series of reports, including the Crop Production summary and the quarterly Grain Stocks report, both to be released on January 12, 2007.
All NASS reports are available here .
