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Colby, Kansas | It's also possible that they are using aerial imagery (infra-red or something else) to do yield estimations, they then select points across the range of light values for "ground truthing" so that they can build a relationship between aerial light values and predicted yield, then use this relationship to make better estimates that include the variability that exist out in the country.
The whole deal with surveys etc is interesting as I can see both sides, yes this is a very competitive business and thus people like to keep their hand close, on the other side of that I truly don't believe it will ever be feasible to hold back that type of information (like a post said below, its coming out of the ground sooner or later), or that the release of it is truly damaging. All the big players on the board I'm sure are actively using satellite imagery and "intelligence" of their own. The technology is available and they would be fools not to use it.
The flip side to the surveys is that people on the other side often try using collected data to help producers, ex. we use county level NASS data at KSU for a variety of purposes, and after hearing people complain about the surveys and take pride in not filling them out I often question if the data is meaningful.
Regards,
Lucas
Edited by LHaag 5/26/2007 19:56
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how USDA gets its numbers....
