National Agricultural Statistics Service 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to reduce the currently approved information collections for rice and potato stocks that are currently approved under OMB 0535-0007. Under the current OMB approval the Potato Stocks Survey is conducted on a monthly basis from December through June of each year. Under this reduction NASS plans to discontinue the collecting and publishing of potato stock data for the months of January, March and May. In the four remaining months (December, February, April and June) there will be no changes to the surveys or the publications. The Rice Stocks Survey is currently conducted in January, March, June, August, September, and October (only California for October). Under this reduction, NASS plans to discontinue the collection of data in September, along with the related publication.

This notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to suspend the Distillers Co- Products survey currently approved under docket 0535-0247.

This notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to reduce the currently approved information collections for chemical use surveys approved under OMB 0535-0218. The chemical use surveys included in this docket are: Agricultural Resource Management Survey Phase II (ARMS II), Vegetable Chemical Use Survey, Fruit Chemical Use Survey, and Post Harvest Chemical Use Survey. The Post Harvest survey was suspended under a previous notice. The ARMS II Chemical Use Survey is normally conducted every year and it consists of two versions; Production Practices and Costs Report (PPCR), and the Production Practices Report (PPR). The PPR component is conducted with NASS-only funding to gather field crop chemical use data. The PPCR is co-funded by a cooperative agreement with the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS). The PPCR component efficiently collects costs associated with the various production practices to complete the cost of production estimates for ARMS targeted crop commodities. The ARMS Phase II-PPCR efficiently collects detailed cropping practice and cost data by focusing on field-level and expanding to whole farm, thus greatly reducing respondent burden while maintaining accuracy of reported data. For the 2011 crop year, NASS is making no changes to the Fruit Chemical Use survey and Field Crops Chemical Use survey. Barley and sorghum are the targeted crops for Field Crops Chemical Use survey. Please note that wheat and soybeans were originally in the 2011 crop year but were moved to 2012 crop year due to current budget cuts.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to request revision and extension of a currently approved information collection, the Field Crops Objective Yield Surveys. Revision to burden hours may be needed due to changes in the size of the target population, sampling design, and/or questionnaire length.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to request revision and extension of a currently approved information collection, the Agricultural Resources Management Survey and Chemical Use Surveys. Revision to burden hours may be needed due to changes in the size of the target population, sampling design, and/or questionnaire length.

This notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to suspend one currently approved information collection, (July Sheep and Goat Survey), and to indefinitely postpone the renewal of two periodic data collections (Census of Aquaculture and the Tenure, Ownership and Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL) survey formerly known as the Agricultural Economics and Land Ownership Survey (AELOS)) and their associated publications due to budgetary cutbacks.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intent of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to request revision and extension of a currently approved information collection, the Livestock Slaughter Survey. Revision to burden hours may be needed due to changes in the size of the target population, sampling design, and/or questionnaire length.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to seek reinstatement of an information collection, the 2012 Census of Agriculture.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to request revision and extension of a currently approved information collection, the Organic Production Survey. Revision to burden hours will be needed due to changes in the size of the target population, sampling design, and/or questionnaire length.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to request a reinstatement, with changes, to a previously approved information collection, the Distiller's Grains Survey. Revision to burden hours will be needed due to changes in the size of the target population (expanding from 12 States to 48 States), sampling design, and/or questionnaire length. The title of the information collection has been changed to Distiller's By-products Survey, to encompass both grain and non-grain commodities.