Crop and livestock production reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) often wind up being a punching bag for farmers and others. The accuracy of the USDA reports is unrivaled, but critics are always out there. They question the agency’s statistical methods or claim that revealing the information drives down prices and provides a marketing edge to grain processors, meat packers and agribusinesses.

But what if farmers and others had virtually no unbiased information on crop or livestock production, animal diseases and other key ag issues?...