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Nov. 9, 2026 by Ryan Hanrahan, University of Illinois' FarmDoc project Urbana, IL - Reuters' Tom Polansek reported that "the US Department of Agriculture will use an artificial intelligence tool it built to check data in (this) week's monthly crop production report, agency officials said, after a series of data missteps eroded farmers' and traders' trust in its forecasts." "After the USDA discovered errors in its corn data from September, officials determined the AI tool would have flagged the problem and decided to use it on the crop production report due on November 10, USDA Under Secretary Scott Hutchins said in an interview," Polansek reported. "The tool's debut tests whether the agency can restore confidence in data that often moves markets." "I'm very bullish on the fact that we'll be able to utilize these tools in the future to help us avoid these kinds of really, truly unfortunate errors,' Hutchins said on Thursday," according to Polansek's reporting. AgroLatam's Marcus Ellington reported that "the technology will now serve as an additional validation layer rather than replace existing statistical procedures. The (September corn data) errors resulted from a computer file that incorrectly combined irrigated and non-irrigated corn acreage data, according to Lance Honig of the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service. The original field survey information itself was accurate." "While Hutchins said the September mistakes were unrelated to federal staffing reductions, restoring confidence will require consistent reporting accuracy," Ellington reported. "The new AI system represents a potentially important step toward more dependable agricultural market information." Another Survey Shows Trust in USDA Data Remains Low FarmWeek's Tammie Sloup reported that "confidence in USDA crop data is low among farmers following major revisions to crop reports this year, according to a new survey from Ag View Solutions. Nearly three-quarters of almost 1,200 farmers and farm managers surveyed said they have little to no confidence in USDA reports." "The online survey, conducted Oct. 25-28, drew responses from farmers in 38 states, including 175 from Illinois and 204 from Iowa," Sloup reported. "The findings come after a year of significant revisions to USDA crop estimates that rattled commodity markets and sparked debate about the reliability of government crop data." AgWeb's Margy Eckelkamp reported that "only 38% of respondents say they filled out a USDA survey in the past 24 months. Among the 605 who skipped one and gave a main reason, 34% said they don't feel it matters, 29% said it takes too much time, 24% said the information is redundant and 13% said they don't want to share." "Asked what would restore trust, 33% of respondents chose USDA partnering with private industry companies for better data, and 30% chose a radical change in surveys and reporting," Eckelkamp reported. "In separate written answers, 23% suggested using FSA, RMA and crop insurance data, and 12% each pointed to satellite and AI tools or to private and independent data." Ag View Solutions Consultant Shay Foulk told Brownfield Ag News that "recent listening sessions conducted by the USDA are a good step to restoring trust in the agency, but, 'the farmer is a little tired of optics and a little tired of platitudes and they're ready to see change.' He says, 'And then having some accountability of what is being done about it.'" Tweet |
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