Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the final 2012 Census of Agriculture results sharing a wide-range of information about what agricultural products were raised in the United States in 2012, and where, how and by whom they were grown. The data, which is reported at the national, state and county level, will help farmers, ranchers, local officials, agribusiness and others make decisions for the future.
“The 2012 Census of Agriculture provides a wide range of demographic, economic, land, and crop and livestock production information as well as first-time or expanded data,” said Cynthia Price, State Statistician. “Many of these data about Alabama and our counties are only collected and reported as part of the every-five-year census.”
Some of the highlights from the Alabama 2012 Census of Agriculture are listed below:
· Both Alabama sales and production expenses reached record highs in 2012. Alabama producers sold $5.57 billion worth of agricultural products, but it cost them $4.7 billion to produce these products.
· Poultry and eggs contributed 85.2 percent of the total livestock, poultry and products sold in Alabama.
· In Alabama, 3.4 percent of farms earning $1.0 million or more accounted for nearly 63 percent of the value of sales for Alabama products. Farms with less than $1,000 in sales accounted for 32 percent of Alabama farms.
· Alabama is second in the United States for broilers sold, quail inventory and pounds of peanuts produced.
· Ninty-one percent of all Alabama farms are operated by families or individuals.
· 2,196 Alabama farm operators reported selling products directly to consumers. In 2012, these sales totaled almost $9.2 million (up 10.3 percent from 2007).
· Alabama Farms with Internet access rose from 50.2 percent in 2007 to 64.6 percent in 2012.
· 371 Alabama farms produced on-farm renewable energy, up 15 percent from 2007.
· 4,097 farms covering over 1.0 million acres were farmed with conservation tillage or no-till practices.
To provide easier access to the data, NASS created a number of online tools for people to find and use Census data, including:
Quick Stats 2.0 – an online database to retrieve customized tables. For those new to this tool, a new tutorial video provides easy-to-follow instructions.
Click here to see more...