Non-Substantive Change Statement for Wheat Objective Yield Survey

March 27, 2020

Non-substantive Change Request to Field Crop Objective Yield Surveys 0535-0088

NASS is requesting a non-substantive change to the Objective Yield Program. The Form A for the Wheat Objective Yield survey is normally conducted in person with the respondent. This is to explain the survey and to obtain the respondent’s permission to collect data from their wheat field(s) during the growing season. Three states (Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas) are scheduled to begin data collection around April 15. With the COVID-19 virus, NASS enumerators will be conducting this survey by telephone. The other seven states (Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, and Washington) may use the originally approved questionnaire (face to face interview), which has not been decided yet, it depends on if the COVID-19 virus continues into June.

Minor changes are needed to the questionnaire to accommodate this change in data collection modes and the selection of the target field(s) via the telephone. The new questionnaire is attached to this submission and the items that have been changed are in a red font, so that interested parties can compare this to the original version that is already OMB approved.

There will be no changes to the sample size. There will be a decrease in respondent burden (approximately 5 minutes per respondent or 100 total hours) with the use of the new questionnaire. Previously, the respondent would list all their fields of wheat and from that, a target field was selected. Now the initial field will be the closest to the respondent’s house. If the respondent has more than one field selected, the additional field(s) will be randomly selected.

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