USDA Tweaks Farmer Survey for Better Pesticide Insights
Published Date: 11/20/2025
Notice
Summary
The Department of Agriculture wants to update a survey about pesticide and fertilizer use in Minnesota for 2026. They’re changing some questions to make them clearer and easier to answer, helping farmers share better info. If you’re involved, you’ve got until December 22, 2025, to share your thoughts—no extra costs, just a little time to help improve the survey!
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 1 costs, 0 mixed.
Questionnaire Rewording to Improve Clarity
The National Agricultural Statistics Service is revising questions on the 2026 Minnesota Pesticide and Fertilizer Survey: several items are being reworded, clarified, or replaced to improve data quality and respondent understanding. The notice states these changes are designed to improve accuracy and usability without increasing respondent burden.
Phone Interviews Start February 2026
The revised Minnesota Pesticide and Fertilizer questionnaire will be administered by phone beginning in February 2026, as requested by the sponsoring agency. Farms and ranches in Minnesota should expect phone enumeration for this annual survey.
Annual Response Burden for Farms
The survey targets farms and ranches with an expected 24,200 respondents who will report once per year. The agency estimates total respondent burden of 11,571 hours for this collection.
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