Every fall the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) conducts a survey of Colorado’s wheat producers to ask what wheat varieties they have planted for the crop year. The survey is funded by the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee. That’s right – it is your producer-elected board that wants that information. The variety survey allows CWAC, as well as private companies, to track trends in wheat production, and make investments according to which varieties producers want to grow. This helps bring diversity in varieties and make sure the needs of Colorado’s wheat producers are being met.
The survey has an amazing history, going all the way back to 1981 without missing a single year. It revealed that TAM107 got to 63% of the acreage in 1995, which may have been good for yields but was terrible for quality, basis, and risk associated with a single variety being on so many acres. CWAC’s biggest investment is research at Colorado State University. The survey has also highlighted how increased investment in the CSU Wheat Breeding Program has resulted in much higher usage of the varieties developed with producer funds, and that continued investment is worthwhile.
Lately, it has revealed that adoption of wheat stem sawfly varieties, at 23% in the 2024 survey, closely matches the percentage of breeding effort for wheat stem sawfly at CSU. The more producers fill out the survey, the more accurate the results. Your responses remain anonymous – we just need you to fill it out to get the best data we can. We know farmers are over-surveyed, but this is one survey that is paid for and requested by producers themselves.
The wheat variety survey for 2025 will be included in the National Agricultural Statistics Service’s December Agricultural Production Survey and the Row Crop County Agricultural Production Survey. It is important to note that you can only be selected to participate in one of these surveys, not both. Questionnaires should arrive in the mail in mid-November. If you receive a survey, you can respond online at www.agcounts.usda.gov using the unique survey code printed on the label of the questionnaire you received in the mail, or you can complete the questionnaire and return it in the included postage-paid business reply envelope. The deadline to complete the surveys is December 18, 2024. However, if you do not complete the survey you were sent, there’s a chance you may be contacted via telephone by a NASS representative to collect the data.
Thanks in advance for completing the survey if you receive one!