Laserfiche WebLink
Comments and Concerns <br />Agricultural statistics published by CASS and NASS are appropriate for use in identifying the <br />crops grown in the North Platte River and South Platte River basins and as a target and <br />subsequent "reality" check for the irrigated acreage assessment. They are also useful for <br />identifying trends over time and to estimated crop types and acreage for missing years between <br />irrigated acreage assessments developed by the SPDSS team. However, agricultural statistics <br />should be used with caution, as indicated by the following comments and concerns: <br />Agricultural statistics are dependent onuser-reported survey results. We have seen in other <br />studies performed for the State and other clients that irrigators often do not adjust their <br />reports from year to year, especially if acreages and crop types only vary slightly. As <br />documented by the compilers of agricultural statistics, if surveys are not returned, a statistical <br />approach is used to estimate results. Therefore, there are inherent errors in both the <br />reporting and the compilation. <br />As noted above, historic statistics are commonly "updated" when new information can be <br />used to better fill missing data. Therefore, we recommend that when agricultural statistics <br />are used for future tasks to fill between missing GIS coverages, the data used for this task be <br />replaced with the most current data. In addition, HydroBase should be refreshed with <br />historic data each time -not with just the current year's data. <br />The CASS "Hay Other" category list includes reported grass-type crops were cut, dryed, and <br />baled at least once during the season. The five-year NASS census reports irrigated pasture as <br />grass type crops that were used for grazing. According to Mr. Fretwell, it is possible for the <br />same land to be included in both categories if it was cut early then used for grazing later in <br />the year. Therefore, we may be overestimating the total Grass Pasture by combining these <br />two categories. <br />Page 13 of 13 <br />