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NRCS 2007 Annual Report to the AAEA Economic Statistics and Information Resources Committee

Updated 10/09/2007

  1. The primary source of NRCS data is still the local county Field Office Technical Guide.  This is available from the state websites or nationally from http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/efotg/
  2. USDA Farm Bill 2007 Farm Bill Site:
    http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1UH?navid=FARM_BILL_FORUMS
  3. NRCS Economics & Analysis Site is available at http://economics.nrcs.usda.gov.
    1. This includes the AAEA Commodity Costs and Returns Estimation Handbook at http://www.economics.nrcs.usda.gov/care/aaea/index.html.
    2. State by state economic resources are available at http://www.economics.nrcs.usda.gov/care/budgets/index.html.  Please check that your university data is accurately represented there.
    3. The NRCS Economic Tools by Landuse site has many farm and resource economic tools, http://www.economics.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/tools/index.html.
    4. Regional economic impact analyses of conservation activities from 12 states using the IMPLAN model are available.  http://www.economics.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/implan/index.html
  4. Link to NRCS Energy Estimator for Nitrogen The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has developed four energy tools designed to increase energy awareness in agriculture and to help farmers and ranchers identify where they can reduce their energy costs. The results generated by these tools are estimates based on NRCS models and are illustrative of the magnitude of savings. Three more energy estimators will be built next year.  http://energytools.sc.egov.usda.gov/
  • Energy Estimator: Animal Housing
    The Energy Estimator for Animal Housing tool is designed to enable you to estimate potential energy savings associated with swine, poultry or dairy cows housing operations on your farm or ranch. This tool evaluates major energy costs in lighting, ventilation and heating costs for swine and poultry. It evaluates major energy costs with lighting air circulation, milk cooling, water heating and milk harvesting costs for typical dairy. This tool does not provide site specific recommendations.  http://ahat.sc.egov.usda.gov/
  • Energy Estimator: Irrigation
    The Energy Estimator for Irrigation tool enables you to estimate potential energy savings associated with pumping water for irrigation. NRCS technical specialists developed this model to integrate general technical information farm-specific crops, energy prices, and pumping requirement. This tool does not provide field-specific recommendations.  http://ipat.sc.egov.usda.gov/
  • Energy Estimator: Nitrogen
    The Energy Estimator for Nitrogen tool enables you to calculate the potential cost-savings related to nitrogen use on your farm or ranch. NRCS agronomists developed this model to integrate general technical information on nitrogen use with farm-specific information on fertilizer types, costs, timing, and placement. http://nfat.sc.egov.usda.gov/
  • Energy Estimator: Tillage
    The Energy Estimator for Tillage tool estimates diesel fuel use and costs in the production of key crops in your area and compares potential energy savings between conventional tillage and alternative tillage systems. The crops covered are limited to the most predominant crops in 74 Crop Management Zones (CMZ's). NRCS agronomists have identified these crops and estimated the fuel use associated with common tillage systems. The Energy Estimator gives you an idea of the magnitude of diesel fuel savings under different levels of tillage. http://ecat.sc.egov.usda.gov/

 

 

The Web Soil Survey is available at: http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/.  Web Soil Survey (WSS) provides soil data and information produced by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. It is operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and provides access to the largest natural resource information system in the world. NRCS has soil maps and data available online for more than 95 percent of the nation’s counties and anticipates having 100 percent in the near future. The site is updated and maintained online as the single authoritative source of soil survey information.

Use the Area of Interest tab to define the area you are interested in. You can define an area by zooming in on a map and drawing a box around your area or by selecting from a choice list. You must complete this step before you can go on to the next two steps.

 

Next, click on the Soil Map tab to view and print a map of the soils in your area.

 

Third, click on the Soil Data Explorer tab to access soil data for your area. You can determine the suitability of the soils in your area for a particular

The shortcut link is http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/WebSoilSurvey.aspx

 

  1. SSURGO county soil surveys have been superseded by a “Soils Mart: an improved version (covering over 2,000 counties) is available at: http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov/.  The general NRCS soils information website is at:  http://soils.usda.gov/
  2. The main NRCS Data Resources site is at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/dataresources/
  3. The Rules for all conservation programs from the 2002 Farm Bill are available from http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/farmbill/.  The accompanying Cost/Benefit Analysis, Environment Assessment, Civil Rights Impact Analysis, and Risk Assessments are also publicly available for each Rule for each Farm Bill Program.  These 2002 Cost/Benefits Analyses should be a starting point for all 2007 program analyses by researchers. 
  4. Conservation Costs Lists for each state are available from Section I of each NRCS State Office website, and under specific program information for each site.  A listing of average annual costs of practices is available at: https://smartech.sc.egov.usda.gov/PracAvgCostsView.aspx.  This traditional system is being redesigned into a Payments Schedule for all programs, which provides a fuller economic accounting of the local costs of practices, and greater flexibility to fit with new Farm Bill Programs and WTO rules.
  5. Additional resource analysis is available at the State of the Land site at: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/land/.  This site includes information from the NRCS National Nutrient Loss Modeling Project running a version of EPIC on all cropland NRI points nationwide.  This output is then used with the SWAT, http://www.brc.tamus.edu/swat/,  model in the Hydrological Unit Modeling of the United States (HUMUS) to forecast how changes in agricultural operations leads to on-site and off-site natural resource changes.  http://gcmd.nasa.gov/records/HUMUS.html
  6. Results from the 2003 Annual NRI are at: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/NRI/. 
    The National Resources Inventory (NRI) is a statistical survey designed to help gauge natural resource status, conditions and trends on the Nation’s nonfederal land.  The NRI was conducted every 5 years between 1977 and 1997, and is now in a continuous/annual, inventory process. This shift helps align the NRI with the need for timely information to support agricultural and conservation policy development and the assessment of the impacts of policy choices and conservation program implementation.  NRI data are gathered from a scientifically selected subset of the 800,000 sample sites that were established for previous NRIs.  This sub-sample includes a set of “Core” sample sites, which are sampled each year, and “Rotation” (or “supplemental”) sample sites that vary by inventory year and allow an inventory to focus on an emerging issue.  Additional on-site data gathering is conducted for items that cannot be determined remotely, to establish baseline conditions, and for quality assurance purposes.
    The 2003 Annual NRI shows a net gain of 263,000 wetland acres due to agriculture between 1997 and 2003.  Soil Erosion from both wind and water continues to decrease.  Non-cultivated cropland and urban lands continue to increase, at the expense of cultivated cropland and pastureland.

erosion chart, see the erosion tables for data values  erosion map, see the erosion by farm production region tables


 
  1. The Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) began in 2003 as a multi-agency effort to quantify the environmental benefits of conservation practices used by private landowners participating in selected U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation programs.  The CEAP Blue Ribbon Panel Final Report was released by the Soil and Water Conservation Society on May 9, 2006.  http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/NRI/ceap/  The project consists of three components:
    1. National Assessment - Providing national summary estimates of conservation practice benefits and assessing the potential for USDA conservation programs to meet the nation’s environmental and conservation goals. Cropland, wetlands, wildlife and grazing lands will be assessed.
    2. Watershed Assessment Studies - Basic research on conservation practices in selected watersheds nationwide to provide a framework for evaluating and improving performance of national assessment models. f
    3. Bibliographies and Literature Reviews - Current literature on conservation programs. Two literature reviews in progress will document what is known and not known about the environmental benefits of conservation practices and programs for cropland and fish and wildlife.

New Items with CEAP include: The President’s National Wetlands Report for 2007 identifies accomplishments by Federal agencies to meet the goal of a net resource gain in wetlands quantity and quality. The report includes an overview of how the CEAP-Wetlands methodology will contribute to the national net gain goal.

·          This document requires Adobe Acrobat.
Adobe Acrobat DocumentCEAP Grazing Lands Assessment Fact Sheet, January 2007 (1.5 MB)

·          ARS’s Quest To Improve the Chesapeake Bay, Agricultural Research magazine, November/December 2006

·          Studies Show USDA Conservation Efforts Increase Northern Bobwhite Quail and Sage Grouse Populations, November 14, 2006

·          These documents require Adobe Acrobat.
Adobe Acrobat DocumentEstimating Wildlife Response to the Conservation Reserve Program: Bobwhite and Grassland Birds, October 2006 (0.5 MB)
Adobe Acrobat DocumentUse of CRP Fields by Greater Sage-grouse and other Shrubsteppe associated Wildlife in Washington, October 2006 (4 MB)

·          This document requires Adobe Acrobat.
Adobe Acrobat DocumentCompilation of Measured Nutrient Load Data for Agricultural Land Uses in the United States, Journal of the American Water Resources Association, October 2006 (1 MB)

·          Two New CEAP Bibliographies Available Online, October 11, 2006

  1. The current directory of NRCS economists is at: http://www.economics.nrcs.usda.gov/Contact/directory.html
  2. Please stop the NRCS Exhibit by for much more information on NRCS programs and data.

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