USDA announced yesterday that NASS and the World Agricultural Outlook Board or WAOB will begin issuing several major USDA statistical reports at 11:00 a.m. central time beginning in January of 2013. The current USDA release time of 7:30 a.m. central time will remain in effect until January 1, 2013. Affected reports are the WASDE report, Acreage, Crop Production, Grain Stocks, Prospective Plantings, and Small Grains Summary. Livestock reports currently released at 2:00 p.m. central time will not change.
Between June 8 and July 9, 2012, USDA sought public comment on the release times for several major statistical reports in response to changes in market hours by major commodity exchanges. Stakeholders submitted 147 comments through the NASS online response site and via letter and e-mail. The comments received may be viewed on the NASS website.
Under the Freedom of Information Act and Office of Management and Budget Statistical Policy Directives 3 and 4, rules are in place to regulate the public’s access to federally generated statistics. The 2012 official published schedule for all NASS reports is available here. The WAOB report schedule is available at here.
