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Government shutdown would delay USDA data

An analyst with USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service says if the government shuts down this weekend, a lot of reports and survey work will be put on hold.

Greg Bussler compiles data for USDA in Madison, Wisconsin. He tells Brownfield, “Midnight on Saturday night is when the deadline expires and then it comes down to how long will the shutdown occur? It can be a couple of days or it can be several weeks. The last shutdown which occurred in 2018 and 2019 was about thirty-some days.”

Bussler says a shutdown now would also delay the October 12^th crop production report. “We’re going to try and collect as much data as we can up until the 30th for the October Crop Production Report, and then it’s kind of on a wait-and-see basis after that as far as being able to do fieldwork or actual counts on the corn and soybean fields.”

And he says a shutdown will also delay contacting farmers about crop production and other surveys including the nationwide Agricultural Resource Management Survey that is gathering chemical use and cost of production information.

If Congress doesn’t pass a government funding bill in time, the shutdown would start at midnight Saturday night.

AUDIO: Greg Bussler discusses what might happen during a government shutdown with Brownfield’s Larry Lee