With most of its workers on furlough due to the partial government shutdown, the USDA will be unable to release on time a set of major reports now scheduled for Jan. 11. The department is expected to announce today that the reports will be delayed until the shutdown is over, said chief economist Robert Johansson.
Some of the reports could be issued quickly once the USDA is back at work, but others require four or five days to put together, so they would appear a bit later.
At issue are the so-called WASDE report, which assesses crop output and usage worldwide; the Winter Wheat Seedings report, an important clue to the likely size of the 2019 U.S. wheat crop; the quarterly Grain Stocks report, which tallies the stockpiles of major crops; an estimate of U.S. citrus production for this season; and a report that takes a final look at 2018 crop production. Data for many of the reports was gathered during a December survey of nearly 82,000 farmers.
If the shutdown drags on, USDA officials will have to decide whether to issue back-to-back versions of the Crop Production and WASDE reports or combine them. In 2013, a 17-day government shutdown in October forced the USDA to cancel a crop report for the first time in 147 years. The September 2001 crop and WASDE reports were postponed by two days because of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.