New_Shapefile

Abstract:

National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), 1997 CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE:  Results of the 1997 Census of Agriculture are published in a series of reports that provide data at the national, state, and county (or equivalent) levels for the U.S.

Purpose:

The Census of Agriculture is the leading source of facts and statistics about the Nation's agricultural production.  It provides a detailed picture of U.S. farms and ranches every five years and is the only source of uniform, comprehensive agricultural data for every state and county or county equivalent in the U.S.

National, state, and county data are published in detailed national and state tables for the U.S., and in state and county tables for each state.  These reports include data on number and size of farms; crop production; livestock, poultry, and their products; tenure, age, and principal occupation of operator and up to three operators;  type of organization; value of products sold; government payments plus market value of agricultural products sold; production expenses; direct marketing; landlord expenses; computer use; production contracts; fertilizers and chemicals; machinery and equipment; farm labor and migrant workers; value of land and buildings; agricultural activity on American Indian reservations; grain storage capacity; land use; irrigation; and the North American Industry Classification System.

Supplemental_Information:

FARM DEFINITION:  The census definition of a farm is any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year.  The definition has changed nine times since it was established in 1850.  The current definition was first used for the 1974 Census of Agriculture and has been used in each subsequent agriculture census.  This definition is consistent with the definition used for current USDA surveys.

REFERENCE PERIOD:  Crop production is measured for the calendar year, except for a few crops such as avocados, citrus, and olives for which the production year overlaps the calendar year.
*  Livestock, poultry, and machinery and equipment inventories, market value of land and buildings, and grain storage capacity are measured as of December 31, of the census year.
*  Crop and livestock sales, farm expenses, income from federal farm programs, irrigation, Commodity Credit Corporation loans, Conservation Reserve and Wetlands Reserve Program participation, direct sales income, chemical and fertilizer use, farm-related income, and hired farm labor data are measured for the calendar year.

Currentness_Reference:

publication date

Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:

1997 AgCensus Database Description:

1)  Table Desciptions:
-  County level Tables: 6, 7, 10, 26-34;
-  State level Tables:  6, 7, 10, 26-34.
-  Look Up Tables:  State and County level catagories for use with GEOSTAC;
State and County level catagories for use in original database structure;
Census Year:  1987, 1992, 1997  reference years;
State and County level FIPS and area name references.

2)  Abbreviations and Symbols:
The following abbreviations and symbols are used throughout the tables:
B, data not available due to brackets
D, data w/held to avoid disclosing info. for individual farms
H, std error or relative std error of est is >= 99.95%
L, std error or relative std error of estimate is <= .05%
N, data not available or not published
S, data did not meet publication standards
X, data not applicable
Z, less than half of the unit reported
-, data item is a negative number
cwt, hundredweight
"sq ft","square feet"

Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation:

National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) help file, available at:  www.usda.gov/nass/

Ordering_Instructions:

Data can be downloaded from www.geostac.org with a registered user ID and password provided by the Spatial Sciences Laboratory.