Sample Pre Survey Letter to Respondents

Letter for New Participants

[Date]

Dear Mr./s [respondent’s name]:

Each year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) conducts the Prices Received Survey. This monthly survey helps USDA estimate prices received by farmers and ranchers for crop and livestock commodities.

A sample of elevators, warehouses and other types of commodity buyers nationwide has been selected to participate in the 2009 Prices Received Survey. Your operation has been selected for the upcoming marketing year.

The NASS [State] Field Office will mail a questionnaire to you during the first week of each month asking for information on the quantity of specific commodities purchased the previous month, the average price paid and a preliminary price paid for the current month.

Your participation in this survey is vital to U.S. agriculture. The Prices Received Survey supports U.S. producers by providing information used for calculating:

• Counter-cyclical payments

• Disaster assistance program payments

• Parity prices and indexes to track trends in the farm economy

• Percent of crop sold to date

• Farm cash receipts

• Agriculture’s contributions to the national economy

• Farm share of consumer food expenditures

A representative from our office will contact you soon to further explain the commodity price program, answer your questions and determine how your firm can most conveniently provide this important data. Please be assured that your responses to this survey will be kept completely confidential, as required by federal law, and only used in combination with other data for state- and national-level estimates.

Thank you in advance for your support of our programs and [State] agriculture. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact [Firstname Lastname] at (800) XXX-XXXX.

Sincerely,

[Director’s Name]

Director