Utilizing an Alternative Sampling Frame to Produce Agricultural Survey Indications

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) conducts hundreds of surveys every year and prepares reports covering virtually every aspect of U.S. agriculture. NASS maintains a list frame containing names, addresses, telephone numbers, and other descriptive data on producers (and agribusinesses) and an area frame covering all land area in the U.S. To form multiple frame survey indications, data collected from the list frame sample are combined with data collected from the area frame operators who are not on the list frame. In this respect, the area frame accounts for the incompleteness of the list frame. This methodology ensures that every producer has a chance of selection. For many years, NASS has partnered with USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) to use their data as an administrative data source since most producers report their planted crop acreages to FSA on an annual basis. Starting in December 2006, NASS initiated an operational pilot program to employ using FSA administrative data as a sampling frame in the state of Nebraska. The goals of this new methodology were to reduce respondent burden, reduce data collection costs, and improve survey indications. After two years, the operational pilot program was discontinued because the objectives were not sufficiently achieved. However, various operational programs within NASS continue to use FSA administrative data, just not as a sampling frame. This paper provides an overview of NASS utilizing an alternative sampling frame to produce agricultural survey indications.