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USDA crop reports delayed due to government shutdown

USDA Chief Economist Rob Johansson says the USDA crop reports that were set to be released Jan. 11th will be delayed because of the the government shutdown.

“They do take some time to put together and complete the analysis and compile those reports, so we need to have our staff in the office in order to do that,” he says. “At this time we’re going to delay those and we will be putting them out once funding becomes available and we can bring staff in.”

He tells Brownfield that includes the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), crop production reports, grain stocks, and rice stocks.

Johansson says it will take about a week to release the reports once funding resumes.

“The analysts and NASS and the World Board folks will get together as quickly as possible once we can get back in the office and make sure that we try to get those reports out as quickly as possible,” he says.

He says this delay is different than the delay in 2013 where USDA report data was missing.

Johansson says that is not the case this time, and the reports will be released as soon as possible.

Audio: Rob Johansson, USDA