The Claim

Reinstated critical reports canceled by the Biden Administration, including the July Cattle Report and the County Estimates for Crops and Livestock — giving farmers the data needed to make important decisions for their operations.

The Claim, Unpacked

What is literally being asserted?

Two things: (1) The Biden administration canceled the July Cattle Report and County Estimates for Crops and Livestock; (2) The Trump administration reinstated them, restoring data that farmers need.

What is being implied but not asserted?

That Biden deliberately chose to eliminate data farmers relied on, and that the Trump administration prioritized farmer welfare by reversing that decision. The framing “canceled by the Biden Administration” implies an executive policy choice rather than a budget-driven operational necessity.

What is conspicuously absent?

That the reports were discontinued by the nonpartisan career staff at the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) because Congress did not appropriate sufficient funds — not because of a Biden administration policy decision. Also absent: the fact that the same administration subsequently discontinued other NASS reports (Agricultural Labor Survey, Mink Survey) in August 2025, and that a November 2025 government funding lapse further disrupted NASS reporting, including canceling the Crop Production and Progress report entirely.

Evidence Assessment

Established Facts

The July 2025 Cattle Report was published as scheduled, confirming the reinstatement. The USDA National Agricultural Library confirms a July 25, 2025 release of the biannual cattle report, restoring the data series after a one-year gap (the last July release had been July 21, 2023, with no July 2024 release due to the April 2024 discontinuation). The NASS reinstatement notice and the library’s independent publication record both confirm this. ¹

The 2024 discontinuation was caused by congressional appropriations, not a Biden executive decision. NASS explicitly attributed the cuts to “appropriated budget levels.” Federal agency budgets are set by Congress through the appropriations process. NASS had previously cut county estimates for certain crops in 2020 when a cooperative funding agreement was not renewed — also a budget issue, not a policy directive from the Trump (first term) White House. Two independent NASS notices from different years demonstrate the pattern: report availability is a function of congressional funding, not presidential preference. ²

Strong Inferences

NASS discontinued the July Cattle Report, Cotton Objective Yield Survey, and all County Estimates for Crops and Livestock on April 9, 2024. The NASS Agricultural Statistics Board issued a formal notice stating: “The decision to discontinue these surveys and reports was not made lightly, but was necessary, given appropriated budget levels.” This was a budget-driven operational decision by career statisticians, not an executive policy directive from the Biden White House. ³

NASS reinstated the July Cattle Report and County Estimates on March 19, 2025. The reinstatement notice scheduled the July Cattle Report for release on July 25, 2025, and provided specific dates for county estimates: corn, sorghum, soybeans on May 6; cotton on May 12; cattle on May 13; rice, peanuts on May 23. Row crop county estimates would cover the 2024 crop season, while small grains would begin with the 2025 season. ⁴

The same administration subsequently discontinued other NASS reports in August 2025. Five months after reinstating the cattle and county reports, NASS issued a notice on August 28, 2025 discontinuing the Agricultural Labor Survey and Mink Survey, characterizing them as “deemed duplicative and/or no longer necessary” under a government efficiency rationale. The Agricultural Labor Survey provided the only comprehensive federal data on farm labor wages and employment — data critical to labor-intensive agricultural sectors. ⁵

A November 2025 government funding lapse further disrupted NASS reporting. NASS issued a notice on November 19, 2025 acknowledging that “during the lapse, data collection and releasing of data paused for most reports.” The Crop Production and Progress report was cancelled outright, and numerous other commodity reports were delayed or consolidated. ⁶

The reinstatement funding likely came from reprioritization within NASS, not new appropriations. The March 2025 reinstatement occurred less than two months into the new administration, well before any FY2025 supplemental or FY2026 budget could have been enacted. The government was operating under continuing resolutions for much of FY2025. This suggests NASS leadership reprioritized existing resources — which raises the question of what other programs were deprioritized to fund the reinstatement. The August 2025 discontinuation of the Agricultural Labor Survey may represent such a trade-off. ⁷

The county estimates reinstatement may have been incomplete or delayed. As of March 2026, the NASS Iowa county estimates page still shows 2022-2023 crop data as the most recent available, despite the March 2025 reinstatement notice promising 2024 crop year county estimates beginning May 2025. While the data may be available through QuickStats or other channels, the state-level publication pages have not been updated, suggesting implementation challenges. ⁸

What the Evidence Shows

The core factual claim holds up: NASS did discontinue the July Cattle Report and County Estimates in April 2024, and NASS did reinstate them in March 2025 after the Trump administration took office. The July 2025 Cattle Report was published on schedule, confirming the reinstatement was real. These are genuinely valuable data products — the July Cattle Report provides mid-year inventory data that directly affects cattle futures pricing and ranchers’ breeding decisions, while county-level estimates allow local agricultural lenders, crop insurance adjusters, and individual farmers to benchmark their operations against county averages.

However, the claim’s framing — “canceled by the Biden Administration” — misattributes the cause. NASS’s own notice explicitly states the discontinuation was “necessary, given appropriated budget levels.” Federal agency budgets are set by Congress, not by executive fiat. The FY2024 appropriations that constrained NASS were enacted under a Republican-controlled House and narrowly divided Senate. Attributing the cuts to “the Biden Administration” inverts the accountability structure: it was Congress that failed to fund NASS adequately, and it was NASS career staff who made the painful triage decision about which reports to cut.

The reinstatement is a genuinely positive development for the agricultural sector. But the broader trajectory of agricultural data availability under this administration is mixed at best. Five months after reinstating these reports, NASS discontinued the Agricultural Labor Survey — the only comprehensive federal source of farm wage and employment data — under a “government efficiency” rationale. A November 2025 government funding lapse then disrupted virtually all NASS reporting, canceling the Crop Production and Progress report outright. The administration is selectively restoring high-visibility data products while the underlying infrastructure of agricultural statistics continues to erode.

The Bottom Line

The reinstatement of the July Cattle Report and County Estimates is real and genuinely beneficial for farmers and agricultural markets. This is one of the clearer examples of a government action that actually helps the constituency it claims to serve. However, calling these reports “canceled by the Biden Administration” misattributes a budget-driven decision by career statisticians to an executive policy choice, and the claim omits the fact that the same administration subsequently eliminated other agricultural data programs while a funding lapse disrupted NASS operations broadly. The administration gets legitimate credit for reprioritizing these specific reports, but the framing obscures both who was actually responsible for cutting them and the broader trajectory of agricultural data availability on this administration’s watch.

Footnotes

1. USDA National Agricultural Library, Cattle Report Publication History ↩

2. NASS Agricultural Statistics Board Notice, February 13, 2020, “USDA NASS Discontinues County Level Estimates for Selected Crops” ↩

3. NASS Agricultural Statistics Board Notice, April 9, 2024, “NASS Discontinues Select 2024 Data Collection Programs and Reports” ↩

4. NASS Agricultural Statistics Board Notice, March 19, 2025, “NASS Reinstates Select Data Collection Programs and Reports” ↩

5. NASS Agricultural Statistics Board Notice, August 28, 2025, “NASS Discontinues Select Data Collection Programs and Reports” ↩

6. NASS Notice, November 19, 2025, “USDA Reschedules Reports Affected by Lapse in Federal Funding” ↩

7. Inference from timing of reinstatement (March 2025) relative to appropriations cycle and subsequent discontinuations (August 2025) ↩

8. NASS Iowa Field Office County Estimates page, accessed March 20, 2026 ↩