Provides data to estimate U.S. milk
production, milk cows, amounts and value of feed fed to milk cows,
and production of manufactured dairy products in all States. Data
are also used by USDA in milk and milk products price
formulas.
This is a request for an
emergency approval of a revision of the NASS milk and milk products
information collection. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS)
Interim Final Rule was published in the Federal Register on
Tuesday, July 3, 2007. That rule established a Dairy Product
Mandatory Reporting Program. In preparation for this new ruling,
NASS submitted an emergency review request in May 2007 to get
approval of the new mandatory constraint that was added to all of
the affected questionnaires. The Interim Final Rule was given an
expiration date of 12 months. The Interim Final Rule had an
extended comment period, which closed on December 3, 2007. In
January 2008, NASS received a regular 3 year approval for the Milk
and Dairy Products docket (0535-0020). Since the closing of the
comment period AMS has had time to review both the comments and the
Final Rule. AMS has deemed it necessary to make some fine tuning
changes to the questionnaires to clarify a few points that were
missed when they submitted the questionnaires for the previous
approval process. These substantive changes serve to add clarity to
the questionnaires and help to insure the intent of the Final Rule
is adhered too. The Dairy Product Prices Annual Validation
Worksheet was approved for use in the previous OMB approval
process. After it had been used for one cycle, NASS received input
from some of our Field Offices with suggestions for changes that
would improve the usefulness of the questionnaire. The annual
validation was designed to have three primary purposes; first, it
is used as a tool in establishing the firms that need to reply to
the four weekly surveys. Secondly, it is used as a training
instrument to instruct respondents on which items to include or
exclude in the various questions when calculating their responses,
and lastly to record each respondents answers as to their ability
to report dairy product prices consistent with the needs of AMS. In
the event that there should be an audit of the Dairy Product Price
program, AMS needed to have proper documentation that the data was
reported in a consistent and accurate manner. Screening questions
were added to the front page of the Dairy Product Prices Annual
Validation Worksheet. These questions were added to streamline the
questionnaire along with reduce the amount of time (burden) it
takes for the respondent to complete the questionnaire. There have
been no changes to the survey or sampling methodology or procedures
previously approved. The minor adjustments made to the Dairy
Product Prices Program that AMS is managing, have been approved and
are scheduled to be released to the public in mid June, 2008. NASS
requests the Emergency approval of this collection with the
questionnaire changes by June 10, 2008, so that we are collecting
data that are consistent with the new ruling being published by
AMS.
US Code:
7 USC
2204 Name of Law: Duties of Secretary
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Form 090245 Milk Production - Voluntary
0020-Milk-08-emerg-SSB.doc
Non-Response