As of 2005, the University of Minnesota no longer supports the generation or interpretation of crop equivalent ratings (CERs). A new land productivity index—a joint effort of the USDA NRCS, the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, and the University of Minnesota— is expected to be released in 2008. Minnesota Land Economics will continue to report CERs on individual farmland sales, but we no longer report CERs for all soil types. The numbers associated with farmland sales are still "valid", in the sense that they were properly calculated and that they represent that which they were designed to represent. However, the University will no longer answer specific questions about them.