U.S. Cancels October Crop Report, First Miss in 147 Years.

[elleng]

Source: nyt/reuters

The U.S. government cancelled its monthly report on grain and cotton production on Thursday for the first time since reporting began in 1866 and said it will not estimate U.S. or world crop production until early November.

Cancellation of the October report means the first harvest-time estimate of U.S. crops will be November 8. The production report and companion data on crops worldwide are the U.S. Agriculture Department's premiere reports.

They attract a worldwide audience and frequently move commodity prices - and with the gap of an additional month, potentially more so than usual.

The widely followed USDA reports were the biggest immediate casualties of the 17-day government shutdown. Officials were also deciding on Thursday whether to issue an overdue report on the U.S. inflation rate.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/10/17/business/17reuters-usa-fiscal-cropreports.html?hp

[jberryhill]

1. This is just a cover story to hide the alien crop circles they found

[Xipe Totec]

2. Alien crop circle research was also affected by the government shutdown. nt

[Berlum]

11. But it did not slow down the PERNICIOUS onslaught of Ch*m Tr**ls

which, as all intelligent DUers would immediately agree, would be plainly evident if the topic were not VERBOTEN.

[snappyturtle]

3. Smells like B.S.to me. Cui bono? nt

[jberryhill]

4. His name is "Chaz" not "Cui"

[bpj62]

5. Clarence Beeks

Where is Clarence Beeks when you need him. If he can get the Orange Crop report to the Duke Brothers I am sure he can get the fall crop report to the Federal Government.

[JoePhilly]

8. He's on a slow boat back to Kenya, with a date.

[okaawhatever]

13. LOL. I loved that movie. nt

[winstars]

15. "It was the Duke's, It was the Duke's!!! Sorta like the Koch Bros??? nt

[okaawhatever]

16. Yeah, they probably made a $1 bet years ago that they could completely destroy

America and are in the process of doing so.

[SDjack]

6. Several times Goldman Sachs (employer of Mrs. Cruz) has found ways to rape the

world's commodity markets, diverting large profits to themselves and high prices to the world's people. Missing this crop report is a big deal, with the potential of involving manipulation of world commodity markets. But, of course, the Cruz family and Goldman Sachs wouldn't do that.

[snappyturtle]

9. Thank you...my thinking too (#3). I guess most here think this is

no big deal. They are definitely wrong. Matter-of-fact, I'm trying to
decide whether to sell some farm acreage and these reports are
important and that's a little concern compared to the commodity
markets.

[JoePhilly]

7. Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd were planning to sell a fake report to the Koch borthers.

[matt819]

10. Let me guess

This reporting, which costs the federal government money, benefits who? The farmers and the giant agricultural concerns who call for small government and who applauded the shutdown. If the private sector wants this reporting, let them undertake the effort. If the government is collecting and analyzing this info, why is it being made available to corporate America?

[groundloop]

12. Not all farms are huge, and not all farmers are tea-baggers

My family farms, been on the same land for well over 100 years. And I might add my family is almost entirely Democratic. And for anyone at all involved in farming those crop reports are a pretty big deal.

[okaawhatever]

14. Yeah, most people don't understand. I think we could raise some tax revenue by charging

the wall streeters who want the report. Let them subscribe to it, or at least the foreign traders who use the info.

[fasttense]

17. I use the USDA reports to determine prices for

the organic produce I sell. They have a very useful site where you can compare prices 5 to 10 years out. You can sort by type of produce, wholesale or retail price, region, year, organic or conventionally grown.

When I couldn't get them last week, it made it very difficult.

We have a very small farm and are more liberal than most Democrats.