The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is starting a survey of farmland owners to check financial impacts and challenges of land ownership.
NASS says landowners will receive forms for the “Tenure, Ownership and Transition of Agricultural Land” (TOTAL) survey by the end of December. Jay Johnson, Director of NASS’ Census and Survey Division, says the latest Census of Agriculture helped determine that more than 350 million acres of farmland in the United States are rented or leased and the last time NASS spoke to individuals who own the land was more than a decade ago. Johnson says today’s economic conditions change quickly and NASS has the need for new and updated data to learn the true conditions in the ag sector.
More than 80,000 farmland owners and producers across the U.S. will receive TOTAL forms. NASS is mailing out the survey forms to respondents in 48 contiguous states. The survey builds on information collected in the 2012 Census of Agriculture. NASS will publish results of the TOTAL survey in August of 2015.
Source: Dakota Radio Group News