National Agricultural Statistics Service October 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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 List Sampling Frame Surveys. Revision to burden hours will be needed due to changes in the size of the target population, sampling design, and questionnaire length. Annually, NASS obtains lists of farm and ranch operators from different crop and livestock organizations. Before adding these names to our list of active operators we will contact the individuals to determine if they qualify as a farm or ranch and then collect basic information from them on the size and type of operation they have. These data will be used to eliminate any duplication we may have with names already on our list. In addition to the names of potential operators we receive from different crop and livestock organizations, NASS has been investigating the use of web-scraping as a source of identifying new farm operators to add to our List Frame. This new approach will be conducted under a two stage process. A short screening form will be used first to identify potential agricultural producers who will then receive a more detailed questionnaire. This approach is designed to minimize respondent burden on small or non-farming entities.