APPENDIX A. 

 General Explanation 



Page 



DATA COLLECTION A-1 



DATA PROCESSING A-2 



MAJOR DATA CHANGES A-2 



FOLLOW-ON SURVEYS, SPECIAL CENSUSES, AND 



RELATED PUBLICATIONS A-2 



DEFINITIONS AND EXPLANATIONS A-3 



FARMS CLASSIFIED BY SPECIFIED CHARACTERISTICS A-9 



DATA COLLECTION 



Method of Enumeration 



All agriculture censuses beginning with the 1969 census 

 primarily have used mailout/mailback data collection. Direct 

 enumeration methods, however, continue to be used for 

 the agriculture census in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. 

 Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth 

 of the Northern Mariana Islands. 



Mail List 



The mail list for the 1987 census was comprised of 

 individuals, businesses, and organizations that could be 

 readily identified as being associated with agriculture. The 

 list was assembled from the records of the 1982 census, 

 administrative records of the Internal Revenue Service 

 (IRS), and the statistical records of the U.S. Department of 

 Agriculture (USDA). In addition, lists of large or specialized 

 operations, such as nurseries and greenhouses, specialty 

 crop farms, poultry farms, fish farms, livestock farms, and 

 cattle feedlot operations, were obtained from State and 

 Federal agencies, trade associations, and similar organi- 

 zations. Lists of companies having one or more establish- 

 ments (or locations) producing agricultural products were 

 obtained from the 1982 census and updated using the 

 information from the Standard Statistical Establishment 

 List maintained by the Census Bureau. Exhaustive record 

 linkage, unduplication, and mathematical modeling yielded 

 a final mail list of 4.1 million names and addresses that had 

 a substantial probability of being a farm operation. 



Report Forms 



In 1987, three different report forms were used — a 

 two-page, a four-page, and a six-page form to minimize the 

 reporting burden, particularly for small farms and places 

 less likely to be farms. The six-page sample form and the 

 four-page nonsample form are the same, except sections 

 23 through 28 have been added to the sample form to 

 obtain supplemental information from a sample of farms. 



The information collected in these sections will give the 

 Bureau of the Census a good basis for making estimates of 

 these data for other farms included in the census. The 

 two-page form does not have as many questions or as 

 much detail as the four-page and six-page forms. The 

 four-page form has 1 1 regional versions and the six-page 

 form has 13 regional versions. Both forms have different 

 crops prelisted. Appendix D contains copies of both the 

 two-page and six-page forms. 



The six-page form was mailed to 1,104,000 addressees 

 on the mail list, including all those expected to be large 

 (based on expected sales or acreage) or unique (farms 

 operated by multiestablishment companies or nonprofit 

 organizations), all those in Alaska and Hawaii, and a 

 sample of other addressees. The two-page form was 

 mailed to 906,000 addressees. These were expected to be 

 small farms or less likely to be farms. The four-page form 

 was mailed to the remaining 2,079,000 addressees. Fur- 

 ther discussion of the criteria used to determine which 

 form was mailed to an addressee is provided in the Census 

 Sample Design section of appendix C. 



Initial Mailing 



The report forms were mailed in mid-December 1987 to 

 the approximately 4,089,000 individuals, businesses, and 

 organizations on the mail list. The mail packages included 

 a report form, a cover letter with a description of the 

 purposes and uses of the census on the reverse side, an 

 information sheet containing instructions for completing 

 the form, and a postage-paid return envelope. Additional 

 special instructions were included with report forms sent to 

 grazing associations; feedlot operations; institutional orga- 

 nizations; Indian reservations; firms with multiple farm or 

 ranch operations; and producers of poultry under contract, 

 bees and honey, fish, laboratory animals, and nursery and 

 greenhouse crops. 



To provide additional help to farmers in completing their 

 reports, copies of an Agriculture Census Guide booklet 

 were sent to vocational agriculture instructors, USDA 

 county offices of the Agriculture Stabilization and Conser- 

 vation Service, and the Cooperative Extension Service. 

 The Guide contained descriptions and definitions of vari- 

 ous items in more detail than the instructions included with 

 each report form. Representatives of the above agencies 

 graciously consented to assist farmers in completing their 

 report forms. 



Followup Procedures 



A thank you/reminder card was mailed to those on the 

 mail list in mid-January 1988. Five followup letters, three of 



1987 CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE 



APPENDIX A A-1 



