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Abstract
The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) surveys farmers and ranchers
in the fifty states and Puerto Rico in order to estimate crops and livestock, assess
production practices, and identify economic trends. One of NASS’ annual
surveys is the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). ARMS
collects data on chemical use and production practices with a specific focus on the
financial well-being of agricultural operations.
ARMS is composed of three phases with Phase III being the only phase with
response rates typically lower than 80 percent. This low response rate causes a
higher risk of biased results. To improve Phase III response rates, NASS’
Louisiana Field Office and NASS’ Research and Development Division,
conducted two studies. The first study assessed the effect of providing USDA’s
Economic Research Service’s economic brief, “Economic Well-Being of Farm
Households” to a random sample of operations. The second study assessed
reasons for questionnaires being coded as refusals or inaccessibles.