The Census of Agriculture is a comprehensive accounting of agricultural production in the United States prepared by the Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), U.S. Department of Agriculture. CDF contracted with the Census Bureau to tabulate 1982 and 1987 Census of Agriculture data in order to get a clearer statistical picture of livestock operations in California. CDF has a similar contract with NASS to tabulate 1992 and 1997 data. Those interested in range livestock operations in California will find these data a useful reference concerning agricultural land use and practice.
Agricultural Census Data Regions are aggregations of counties for which the U.S. Bureau of the Census summarized 1982 and 1987 Agricultural Census data, with particular attention to livestock enterprises. Data summarized at the county level frequently had a high degree of results withheld to avoid disclosing data for individual farms. Aggregating counties reduced the incidence of withheld results. The regions include from two to four closely related counties and are subsets of the FRRAP Regions used in the 1988 FRRAP Assessment. This aggregation constitutes a framework within which to summarize Agricultural Census data with a minimum of data withheld to avoid disclosure.
This project reports data for enterprise types (called "farmtypes") within each region. Farmtypes include the following:
All Farms:
The data also include cumulative totals for beef ranches greater than 500 ac., greater than 2000 ac. and greater than 5000 ac.
Data reported for farmtypes include: number and areas of farms, livestock inventories, sales of livestock and livestock products, forage production, irrigation, production expenses, land use, land tenure, operator characteristics, type of organization, and grazing permits.
Contact Jim Spero at (916) 324-7185 or James.Spero@fire.ca.gov if you have any questions.
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