About Us

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). It's primary responsibility is to prepare official estimates of agriculture for the nation, and for each state. There are 46 Field Offices that serve all 50 states plus Puerto Rico. The Iowa Field Office is located in Des Moines, Iowa.

Field Offices collect, verify, and analyze data which are used to prepare recommendations for each state. Statisticians in headquarters review these data and issue the official state and national estimates to the public on scheduled dates. About 300 national and 9,000 state reports are issued annually.

Farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses are the grassroots source of information, collected through voluntary surveys conducted by each state Field Office throughout the year. Thanks and special appreciation goes to the many Iowa farmers and other survey respondents who take the time to provide the data to make these reports possible and accurate.

Cooperative agreements with State governments also support preparation and publication of county-level estimates not provided by federal programs. In addition, many Field Offices conduct surveys for state universities and other government agencies.

The Iowa Field Office is also known as the Bureau of Statistics within the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. State support in Iowa makes many special State publications possible. State reports available on a regular basis are:

Iowa Crop Progress & Condition - a weekly report from April - November and a monthly report from December - March, covering crop conditions, progress, growth and development; temperature and precipitation; and livestock conditions.

Iowa Annual Statistical Bulletin - The annual report is issued in September and is published in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

Press Releases are issued after every major USDA-NASS report of interest to Iowa agriculture.

NOTICE to News Media, Agricultural Associations, Others: The agricultural statistics presented are for public use. Please feel free to copy, re-publish, regionalize, link to related websites, and otherwise disseminate as you see fit. Please give appropriate credits.

Last Modified: 11/20/2019