The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) today released new 2012 Census of Agriculture profiles for all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and more than 3,000 counties in the nation. The Census, which is conducted only once every 5 years, is the only time that NASS gathers and makes available agriculture data down to the county level for all U.S. counties.
“The state and county profiles provide snapshots of agriculture by highlighting key data from the recently released 2012 Census of Agriculture,” said NASS Administrator Joseph T. Reilly. “Census information is heavily relied on at the local level and is an excellent resource for anyone searching for data about farmers and agriculture production in their community.”
A variety of data points are included in the profiles to provide a general picture of agriculture in each state and county. Among the information is:
- Number of farms, land in farms, average size of farm
- Market value of products sold, average per farm
- Crop sales, livestock sales
- Government payments, average per farm receiving payments
- Market value of agricultural products sold
- Value of sales by commodity
- Top crop and livestock items
- Economic characteristics
- Operator characteristics
The state and county profiles are the first in a series of products NASS will publish following the May 2 release of the 2012 Census of Agriculture results. NASS will release new tools throughout the year to highlight the more than 6 million data points captured in the agriculture census.
“NASS is committed to providing timely, accurate and useful statistics and part of that is making data as accessible as possible, including more online resources from the Census of Agriculture than ever before,” said Reilly. “Next up this summer are the 2012 Congressional District Profiles and Rankings, which will provide insight into agriculture of particular interest to advocates and policymakers.”
Source:usda