Response to OMB Passback Questions

Passback for Nursery and Christmas Tree Renewal (0535-0244)

October 28, 2016

Supporting Statement A

Item 10.

Minor changes were made to the wording of the pledge so that it would be consistent with NASS procedures.

Q.1. Do these changes reflect the implementation of E3A?

A. No, our SORN documents are being revised at this time to incorporate the Einstein 3 information. We are waiting for a review of the current documents by our Administrator, then we will forward them to the USDA FOIA Officer and then General Council to insert the E3A language into the document, so that it is consistent with other USDA agencies.

The current statement in the Supporting Statement A was requested by Jen Park, since we weren’t using the exact wording on the questionnaires. We do have the exact wording posted on our home webpage as requested by Jen.

Item 12.

Estimated response counts are based on an 80% target response rate.

Q. 2. Given that this survey has been conducted in the past, the estimated response rate should be based on previous response rates, not target response rates. Please provide historical response rates.

A. The burden table has been updated to coincide with the previous surveys (nursery survey 75% and the Christmas tree survey 65%).

Supporting Statement B

Item 1.

The Oregon Christmas Tree Survey and the Oregon Nursery Production Survey are Stratified Simple Random Sample designs.  Operations in the highest strata for both surveys are sampled at 100% and all other strata use previous survey or sampling frame data to derive sample sizes.

Q. 3. Describe the strata and the methods for determining sample size/sampling rate within the sampled strata. What’s the target level of precision?

A. The Oregon Christmas Tree and Nursery Production Sampling Frames are comprised of all Oregon operations with positive Christmas tree acreage and nursery value of sales of at least $10,000, respectively.  The Oregon Christmas Tree and Nursery Production Surveys are Stratified Simple Random Sample designs.  Operations in the highest strata for both surveys are sampled at 100% and all other strata use previous survey or sampling frame data to derive sample sizes.

The goal of the Oregon Christmas Tree Survey is to publish strata level quantity and revenue information.  Therefore, a strata level target CV of 3.5% was used to determine strata level sample sizes.

The Oregon Nursery Production Survey was last conducted as a reimbursable survey in 2010. The precision level for this survey is not available.

Item 2.

Operators who do not respond to either of the mail requests will be attempted by either a phone enumerator or a personal visit from one of our field enumerators.

Q.4. How does NASS decide whether to follow up by phone or in person?

A. The responses we receive from the mail attempts will be monitored by one of our statisticians in our Northwest Regional Field Office. They will determine which operators are to be attempted by phone or field enumeration. They will base this on any comments we have received from the respondents from previous contacts, also by sending the larger or more complex questionnaires out to be field enumerated. The smaller operators are generally easier to collect data from by telephone, than the larger operations. We have found this to be the most efficient and cost effective approach.