Montgomery, AL – Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the highly-anticipated final results of the 2012 Census of Agriculture. This data provides national, state and county data that are only collected and reported every five years as part of the Census of Agriculture.
Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries John McMillan stated, “The release of the Ag Census data is significant. This data is used by our department, farmers, and as an educational tool for the public and more importantly, those who are in public policy decision making positions.”
McMillan continued, “I want to personally thank the Alabama farmers who participated in the Ag Census. In Alabama the response rate was 79.2% compared to 80.1% for the entire U.S. This high response rate shows that Alabama famers know how vital their input is to the Ag Census.”
According to the Census data, released today, there are 3.2 million farmers operating 2.1 million farms on 914.5 million acres of farmland across the U.S. There was an overall decrease in the number of farms nationwide as well as a decrease in overall land in production agriculture but the average farm size was up almost 16 acres.
A PowerPoint of Alabama Highlights provided by the Alabama USDA-NASS field office is attached to this release and also available on the department’s website at http://www.agi.alabama.gov/news/news.
Some interesting facts on 2 Alabama Counties that ranked high in the nation are below along with some useful links.
Baldwin County ranked 5th in the nation among all U.S. counties in Peanut production.
DeKalb County ranked 5th in the nation among all U.S. counties in Broiler production.
Link to rough Alabama Specific Data – http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2012/Full_Report/Volume_1,_Chapter_1_State_Level/Alabama/
Link to U.S. data infographics – http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Partners/Infographics/
Link to the nationwide full report – http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2012/