Cropland used only for pasture or grazing— This 



category includes land used only for pasture or grazing 

 that could have been used for crops without additional 

 improvement. Included also was all cropland used for 

 rotation pasture and land in government diversion pro- 

 grams that were pastured. However, cropland that was 

 pastured before or after crops were harvested was to be 

 included as harvested cropland rather than cropland for 

 pasture or grazing. 



Other cropland — This category includes cropland not 

 harvested and not grazed which was used for cover crops, 

 soil improvement crops, land on which all crops failed, 

 cultivated summer fallow, idle cropland, and land planted 

 in crops that were to be harvested after the census year. 



Total woodland— This category includes natural or 

 planted woodlots or timber tracts, cutover and deforested 

 land with young growth which has or will have value for 

 wood products, land planted for Christmas tree production, 

 and woodland pastured. Land covered by sagebrush or 

 mesquite was to be reported as other pastureland and 

 rangeland or other land. 



Woodland pastured— This category includes all wood- 

 land used for pasture or grazing during the census year. 

 Woodland or forest land pastured under a per-head graz- 

 ing permit was not counted as land in farms and therefore, 

 was not included in woodland pastured. 



Cropland in annual commodity acreage adjustment 

 programs— This category includes land diverted or set 

 aside under the provisions of the Federal Commodity 

 Acreage Program. These data are for the acres of cropland 

 taken out of production by growers of wheat, cotton, rice, 

 corn, sorghum, barley, and oats, and devoted to conser- 

 vation uses. Information was not obtained as to which 

 crops would have been grown on the acres set aside. 



Cropland in the Conservation Reserve Program 

 (CRP)— This category includes acres of "highly erodible" 

 cropland taken out of agricultural production and planted 

 to protective cover crops or reforested. The CRP was 

 established through the 1985 Food Security Act and 

 provides for annual rental payments and shared costs of 

 conservation practices through a 10-year contract with the 

 USDA. Appendix B presents data on places with all their 

 cropland enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program 

 and which were not counted as farms in the 1987 census. 



Irrigated land— This category includes all land watered 

 by any artificial or controlled means, such as sprinklers, 

 furrows or ditches, and spreader dikes. Included are 

 supplemental, partial, and preplant irrigation. Each acre 

 was to be counted only once regardless of the number of 

 times it was irrigated or harvested. 



Operator— The term "operator" designates a person 

 who operates a farm, either doing the work or making 

 day-to-day decisions about such things as planting, har- 

 vesting, feeding, and marketing. The operator may be the 

 owner, a member of the owner's household, a hired 

 manager, a tenant, a renter, or a sharecropper. If a person 

 rents land to others or has land worked on shares by 

 others, he/she is considered the operator only of the land 

 which is retained for his/her own operation. For partner- 

 ships, only one partner is counted as the operator. If it is 

 not clear which partner is in charge, then the senior or 

 oldest active partner is considered the operator. For 

 census purposes, the number of operators is the same as 

 the number of farms. In some cases, the operator was not 

 the individual named on the address label of the report 

 form, but another family member, a partner, or a hired 

 manager who was actually in charge of the farm operation. 



Operator characteristics— All operators were asked 

 to report place of residence, principal occupation, days of 

 off-farm work, year in which his/her operation of the farm 

 began, age, race, sex, and Spanish origin. If race, age, sex, 

 and principal occupation were not reported, they were 

 imputed based on information reported by farms with 

 similar acreage, tenure, and value of sales. No imputations 

 were made for nonresponse to place of residence, Span- 

 ish origin, off-farm work, or year began operation. Opera- 

 tors of Spanish origin were tabulated by reported race. 



Farm production expenses— In 1987, additional spe- 

 cific expense items and a category for all other farm 

 production expenses were added to the selected farm 

 production expenses collected in 1982. Consequently, we 

 are publishing total farm production expenses in 1987. The 

 expenses are limited to those incurred in the operation of 

 the farm business. Expenses include the share of the 

 expenditures provided by landlords, contractors, and part- 

 ners in the operation of the farm business. Property taxes 

 paid by landlords are excluded. Expenditures for nonfarm 

 activities; farm-related activities such as providing custom- 

 work for others, the production and harvest of forest 

 products, and reaeational services; and household expenses 

 are excluded. In 1987, as in other recent censuses, 

 operators producing crops, livestock, or poultry under 

 contract often were unable or unwilling to estimate the cost 

 of production inputs furnished by the contractors. As a 

 consequence, extensive estimation was required for con- 

 tract producers. 



Commercial fertilizer— The expense for commercial 

 fertilizer is the amount spent on fertilizer during 1987 

 including the cost of custom application. The cost of 

 custom application was excluded from the 1982 and 

 1978 data. 



Agricultural chemicals — These expenses include the 

 cost of all insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and 

 other pesticides, including the cost of custom applica- 

 tion. Data exclude commercial fertilizer purchased. 



A-4 APPENDIX A 



1987 CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE 



