The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will gather information about farm economics and production practices from corn producers in Pennsylvania and New York, as part of the 2018 Agricultural Resource Management Survey.

“ARMS is a vital survey that asks about the financial well-being of producers and their households as a whole,” said King Whetstone, director of the Northeastern Regional Field Office. “Data from ARMS helps policymakers better understand the impact of crop insurance offerings on farm production decisions and financial outcomes.”

NASS enumerators will conduct the survey in person starting in October and recommend farmers have their fertilizer and pesticide spray records available to speed up the survey process. This year NASS is reaching out to 4,100 corn producers across the country.

The ARMS survey is conducted in three phases from May 2018 through April 2019. The first phase screened participants to make sure they had the commodity of interest and would accurately represent the entire U.S. farm sector. In this current phase, NASS will collect information on production practices and chemical use for corn. In the final phase, NASS will survey producers on cost of production, farm income, and production expenditures.

NASS safeguards the privacy of all respondents and publishes only aggregate data, ensuring that no individual operation or producer can be identified.