ABSTRACT
The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides an enormous quantity of data on agriculture, including supply and demand estimates of major field crops. The World Agricultural Outlook Board has the primary responsibility for coordinating and preparing these USDA forecasts. This article examines the reliability of selected monthly supply and demand estimates for the United States and foreign countries from 1980 to 1990, and makes comparisons between the two. Based on these data, U.S. estimates were more accurate than foreign forecasts and both estimates improved as the season progressed.
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