Kristen Knudtson of the North Dakota state office of the Farm Service Agency, looks at a farm acreage report that was scanned after being filled out by hand by a farmer. The agency is using a new system to speed up processing of acreage reporting maps. (Photo by Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor)
It’s 2026 and farmers are still writing on a paper map to provide their planting information — what crops were planted in which fields and other details.Typically, someone in a county Farm Service Agency office translates that map into a spreadsheet. The data is key for farmers to be able to participate in federal programs, such as subsidized crop insurance or federal assistance paym...
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