Farms by type of organization. This is a new item 
for 2012. The data categorizes an operation’s 
ownership and legal farming status. 
Operation with 50 percent or more ownership 
interest held by operator and/or persons related by 
blood, marriage, or adoption. The data are used to 
measure the principal operator ownership interest in 
the organization. 
Limited Liability Corporation. This type of farm 
structure combines the pass-through taxation of a 
partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited 
liability of a corporation. 
Farms by value of sales. See Market value of 
agricultural products sold. 
Farms or farms reporting. The terms “farms” and 
“farms reporting” in the presentation of data are 
equivalent. Both represent the number of farms 
reporting the item. For example, if there are 3,710 
farms in a State and 842 of them had 28,594 cattle 
and calves, the data for those farms reporting cattle 
and calves would appear as: 
Cattle and calves farms 842 
number . . . 28,594 
Farms with sales and government payments of 
less than $1,000. This category includes farms with 
combined sales and government payments of less 
than $1,000 but having the potential for sales of 
$1,000 or more. It provides information on all items 
for farms that normally would be expected to sell 
agricultural products of $1,000. 
Farms with sales of less than $1,000. This category 
includes farms with sales of less than $1,000 but 
having the potential for sales of $1,000 or more. 
Some of these farms had no sales in the census year. 
It provides information on all report form items for 
farms that normally would be expected to sell 
agricultural products of $1,000 or more. 
Fertilizer. See Total farm production expenses; 
Fertilizer, lime, and soil conditioners. 
Field and grass seed crops, all. Data are for all the 
field and grass seed crops not published as field 
crops and include field seed crops which did not 
have a specific code on the 2012 report form. 
B -10 APPENDIX B 
Foliage plants, indoor (including hanging 
baskets). For 2012, (including hanging baskets) was 
added to the description for clarity. Data are 
comparable. 
Forage - land used for all hay and all haylage, 
grass silage, and greenchop. Data shown represent 
the area harvested with each acre counted only once 
if dry hay, haylage, grass silage, or greenchop were 
cut from the same acreage or if there were multiple 
cuttings of dry hay, haylage, grass silage, or 
greenchop. Data exclude com silage and sorghum 
silage. Quantity produced is the sum of the quantity 
harvested of all hay including alfalfa, other tame, 
small grain, and wild hay and all haylage, grass 
silage and greenchop after converting the all 
haylage, grass silage, and greenchop quantity 
harvested to a dry equivalent basis (13-percent 
moisture). The green tons of all haylage, grass silage, 
and greenchop harvested were multiplied by a factor 
of 0.4943 to convert to a dry equivalent. This 
conversion factor is based on the assumption that 
one ton of dry hay is 0.87 ton of dry matter, one ton 
of haylage or grass silage is 0.45 ton dry matter, and 
one ton of greenchop is 0.25 ton dry matter. The all 
haylage, grass silage, and greenchop quantity 
harvested is assumed to be comprised of 90-percent 
haylage and grass silage and 10-percent greenchop. 
Therefore, the conversion factor used to adjust all 
haylage, grass silage, and greenchop quantity 
harvested to a dry equivalent basis = 
[(0.45*0.9)+(0.25*0.1)]/0.87 = 0.4943. 
Fruits and nuts tree. Total acres, bearing age acres, 
and nonbearing age acres were collected. In 2012, 
the value of sales was collected; in 2007, it was 
combined with berries. 
Geoexchange system. See Renewable energy 
producing systems 
Government payments. This category consists of 
direct payments as defined by the 2008 Farm Bill; 
payments from Conservation Reserve Program 
(CRP), Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), Farmable 
Wetlands Program (FWP), and Conservation 
Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP); loan 
deficiency payments; disaster payments; other 
conservation programs; and all other federal farm 
programs under which payments were made directly 
to farm operators. Commodity Credit Corporation 
2012 Census of Agriculture 
USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service 
