Federal Shutdown Halts Release of Prominent USDA Reports
The USDA is halting the release of two prominent reports as a result of a lapse in funding due to the federal shutdown
Following the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) website “going dark” last week due to the federal shutdown, the agency will be halting the release of two prominent reports due to a continued lack of funding, leaving producers and the rest of the agriculture industry largely unsure about crop progress. This is according to a recent article on the FoxBusiness website.
The Agriculture Department will not release the U.S. crop report and the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report, previously scheduled for Friday, as a result of the lapse in federal funding. "No reports," said USDA spokeswoman Courtney Rowe in the FoxBusiness article, when asked if the reports would be produced.
The monthly crop report and the WASDE report are two of the USDA’s most prominent reports, as they are followed globally and have a worldwide impact on commodity prices. The United States is the largest farm exporter and a significant producer of the global corn, wheat, and soybean supply, according to the article.
As previously expected, there was little chance of these reports becoming available on the scheduled date. The article notes the “USDA has up to 10 days of data collection and analysis yet to perform before it can estimate the size of fall-harvested U.S. crops, although the world crop report can be assembled fairly quickly.”
As the federal shutdown enters its second week, the USDA has paused the scheduled release of two of its most prominent reports, leaving the agriculture industry and producers to seek other sources of information pertaining to commodity prices and crop progress.