Is USDA preparing to right a lilting ship? On July 15, USDA announced a modern makeover of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), an agency of massive market consequence and designated statistical guardian of the farm economy.
NASS has lost faith with some farmers who question its role as purported watchdog of America’s bins and bushels. According to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, a NASS rehaul is in the works, and her aims are backed by common farmers in flyover country.
“We need NASS to be the gold standard,” Illinois producer Sam Halterman urges. “I have real faith that Secretary Rollins means what she says. Frankly, I’m extremely encouraged because I’ve never seen or heard of a USDA secretary that listens or engages with farmers like Brooke Rollins.”
“For the first time in my career, I feel like someone at USDA is sincere,” Iowa grower Lance Lillibridge concurs. “We have a secretary that realizes there’s a problem and is actively working to fix it. And she’s not in an office, feet kicked up, dictating. No, she’s taking every opportunity to learn from farmers in the field. I’m calling it like I see it.”
Farmers, by necessity and nature, are highly skeptical of government promises, but Rollins’ declared intent to revamp NASS is far from cosmetic, insist Halterman and Lillibridge. Rather, her actions, they contend, address a paramount question of U.S. national food security: Who decides what a crop is worth?
Flying Solo
NASS tallies crop numbers. Those numbers move markets, sometimes leaving farmers holding the bag. Result? A significant loss of faith in NASS and its numbers.
“Let’s say what the problem is: The present system is broken,” Halterman notes. “NASS revises reports and everyone makes money in the chain except the farmer. NASS knows that farmer responses to their surveys are at all-time lows and getting lower. The average farmer does not trust NASS reports.”
On July 15, at a meeting between Rollins and National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) members in Washington, D.C., USDA announced pending changes to data collection, acreage reporting, and survey methods.
However, in the room, among the attendees who spoke with Rollins regarding the present complexities surrounding NASS, were several farmers flying solo from NCGA. They spoke on behalf of ordinary producers: Halterman of Illinois and Lillibridge of Iowa.
Why was the trio in attendance? “Secretary Rollins asked us to be there,” Halterman says. “She wanted regular farmer input, straight outta the field.”
A Few Nobodies
At first, Halterman, 34, didn’t believe the message. He does now.
Halterman has been a consistent NASS critic, often voicing discontent on social media regarding NASS crop report revisions. In June 2026, he received a message from the top of USDA.
“I was contacted by Secretary Rollins and I thought somebody had hacked an account,” he says. “She wanted to talk to me about my perspective on USDA and wanted to hear from farmers with similar takes.”
The exchange snowballed into a series of Zoom calls hosted by Rollins/USDA, with Halterman, Lillibridge, and handful of other producers from Texas to Ohio. No commodity orgs or corporate officials.
“It was unbelievable,” Halterman recalls. “Nothing was staged. She just listened, asked questions, and was in fixit mode. There were no photo-ops, USDA releases, or promotions. Nothing. I could tell she was for real. The farmers on those calls were just a few nobodies scattered across different states. Turns out, that’s exactly who she wanted to hear from.”
The Zoom calls led to a D.C. sit-down meeting on July 15: “We didn’t walk in there with any agenda,” Halterman emphasizes, “except the American farmer.”
A Speeding Train
The 1970s, Lance Lillibridge says, were a long time ago.
“To get data, NASS is using methodologies that date back to the 1970s and that’s a deep problem. My questions and comments to USDA officials in the room on July 15, were, ‘Who needs these reports? When do they need these reports? If NASS can answer those questions with precise answers and reasoning, then it can rebuild how to get accurate information, where the accurate information is located, and when that accurate information can be obtained. As farmers, that’s what we’re asking for.’”
“For example, consider when a farmer goes into FSA to certify acres,” Lillibridge continues. “Done. Right there. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it’s also not reliant on guesswork out of the field. When we’re talking about huge volumes of grain, just being off by 1.5% is a giant number. Accuracy is crucial and that’s how NASS should be steered. Again, a gold standard must be the mark, instead of projections that are mistrusted by everyone.”
Presently, Lillibridge works with NASA Acres Farm Ambassador Innovation Team (FIAT). Major satellite imagery improvements are at hand, he describes, providing NASS with a precision tool: “It’s getting more and more accurate, and soon, satellite imagery will be accurate to a T. It’s going to play a major role in the overall project to get precise, accurate data.”
The present data system supports big business, not farmers, Lillibridge contends. USDA, he says, must factor in leverage used by agribusiness via NASS numbers, i.e., high input costs are fine-tuned.
“All the information that’s out there is calculated by the giant ag companies within a few bucks of what farmers are going to be bringing in, and therefore they use that against us to extract every dollar and every penny they possibly can. It’s my opinion that their greed could be the end of us.”
If nothing changes, Lillibridge posits, the dynamic will spill beyond U.S. agriculture. “This is already a national security issue. We cannot allow these companies to entirely control an industry, but that’s the system we’re presently in. This is a speeding train getting ready to jump the tracks.”
Despite Lillibridge’s warning, he adds a benchmark caveat: “Brooke Rollins is the first secretary of agriculture in my entire career that I believe is going to do something about it. She’s looking at everything, everyone, and all the numbers.”
Perfection Not Needed
Numbers, indeed. Across the table from Lillibridge in the D.C. meeting room, several heads down from Rollins, soaking in the exchanges, sat a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) representative, Sam Berry. Hired by Rollins as USDA’s Chief Information Officer, Berry is crunching numbers.
“I was excited to see Berry in the room,” Lillibridge recalls. “He’s not a farm guy by any means, but his specialty is computations, and right now, that’s what we need.”
“It was a big deal having a guy straight from DOGE there,” Halterman echoes. “They told us that right now, they’ve got about 2,000 private contractors handling data within USDA and 500 data sets. That’s ripe for change and modernization. This is coming fast; this is not a wait-and-see situation.”
How might the NASS changes stack up? What might they look like? Lillibridge says “One Farmer, One File,” likely will play a role.
“I think they’re going to integrate what farmers do at the FSA office. We’ve gone far too long with a broken system, and I would argue that it’s been decades, but we have to make a change, and we’ve got to make it now.”
“This is not about agreeing about everything,” Lillibridge adds. “This is about finding common ground for the sake of all farmers, and therefore our country. Is the new NASS going to be perfect? No way. But guess what? We don’t need it to be perfect the first time. But we need a quick move in the right direction and continued improvement to attain that gold standard.”
Big Shot of Sweet
No magic bullets. No instant fixes.
But Halterman is plain: His outlook has changed. “Secretary Rollins has lots of critics, and that comes with the territory. Based on my firsthand experience, I’ll tell anyone that she wants what is best for farmers and she’s working toward that.”
“I mean, hell, how many times have you ever, ever seen a USDA secretary willing to say their own department has problems and then act to fix those? That takes backbone. It’s been nothing but complacency at USDA—until Brooke Rollins.”
“She knows NASS has to be the gold standard to protect what our crops are truly worth. If that continues not to happen, we’ll have private companies decide what our crop is worth and what it looks like. I believe that’s a recipe for failure and manipulation.”
Halterman chases the bitter with a big shot of sweet.
“I have big hopes that we can change agriculture. I have faith that real change is coming. That means speaking up and acting for all of us. That means having discussions, visiting congressional reps, giving criticism, and taking criticism. If you’re still complaining about farming from home, but doing nothing beyond that, then that’s not good enough.”
For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
Stealing the Farm: China Continues Raid of US Agriculture by Theft and Agroterror
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told
How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer
Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust
Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing
Georgia Watermelon Heist Explodes into Epic Night of Pandemonium
Sisters of Farm Fraud: How 4 Siblings Fleeced USDA for $10M
When Conservation Backfires: Landowner Defeats Feds in Mindboggling Private Property Case
Cold-Busted: Frozen Deer Decoy Nabs Poachers and Cocaine in Spectacular Sting
Sticky Fingers: USDA Fraudster Steals $200M in Stunning Scam
