The USDA says it will mail survey forms at the end of this year for its Census of Agriculture, conducted every five years. The census is “the only source of uniform, comprehensive and impartial agriculture data for every county in the nation,” said administrator Hubert Hamer of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, which conducts the census.
Results are used in setting farm policy and implementing USDA programs, said Hamer. The 2012 census counted more than 3 million farmers on 2 million farms covering 914 million acres. USDA said it wants to survey every farm, which is defined as any place that could produce and sell $1,000 in agricultural products in a year, and invited producers to register by June to receive a survey.
The results of each census generate dozens of pages of material, such as race, ethnicity and gender of farmers; the farm sector in each congressional district; and production of crops and livestock by state or county.
The USDA home page for the Census of Agriculture is available here.