I was fortunate to be a spectator recently at the "lock-up" event for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) monthly crop production report when I traveled to Washington, D.C., with Iowa Farm Bureau’s Ag Leader group.

It was fascinating to be on hand while the heads of USDA’s National Agriculture Statistics Ser­­vice discussed the findings of the crop report, just as the figures were being released Sept. 12 to...