Appendix B. 
General Explanation and Census of Agriculture Report Form 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CENSUS 
REPORT FORMS 
Prior to release of the results from the 2007 Census 
of Agriculture, NASS was preparing for the 2012 
Census of Agriculture. The first team established 
was the 2012 Census Content Team. This team was 
tasked with content determination and report form 
development. They reviewed the 2007 report form 
content, solicited input from internal and external 
customers, developed criteria for determining 
acceptance and/or rejection of content for the 2012 
Census of Agriculture report forms, tested the 
effectiveness of the report forms for various modes 
of data collection (mail, telephone, personal 
interview, and electronic data reporting), and made 
recommendations to NASS senior executives for 
final determination. 
Throughout development NASS sought advice and 
input from the data user community. Integral 
partners included the Advisory Committee on 
Agriculture Statistics, State departments of 
agriculture and other State government officials. 
Federal agency officials, land grant universities, 
agricultural trade associations, media, and various 
Community Based Organizations. 
NASS conducted the 2010 Census of Agriculture 
Content Test in early 2011. The test consisted of 
three phases: cognitive pretesting, national mail-out, 
and follow-up interviews. Results from the testing 
produced one final report form type — a 24-page 
regionalized form with 7 versions (12-AlOl thru 12- 
A107). The regionalized report forms include crop 
sections designed to facilitate reporting crops most 
commonly grown within a report form region. Many 
items in these sections are either prelisted in the 
tables or listed below the tables. A sample copy of 
the report form and instruction sheet is included in 
this appendix. 
2012 Census of Agriculture 
USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service 
DATA CHANGES 
Following are descriptions of the report form 
changes and their effect on the publication tables. 
Crop Data Changes 
Added items include: 
• Miscanthus harvested 
• Switchgrass harvested 
• Camelina harvested 
• Mint for tea leaves harvested 
• Total square feet under protection and acres in the 
open for nursery, greenhouse, floriculture, sod, 
mushrooms, vegetable seeds, and propagative 
materials. 
• Cropland acres planted to a cover crop 
Items listed separately on the 2012 report form that 
were reported in conjunction with similar crop items 
on the 2007 report form include: 
• Hay and forage crops sales 
• Fruit and nuts sales 
• Berries sales 
• Cut Christmas Tree value of sales 
• Short rotation woody crops value of sales 
• Maple syrup sales 
Livestock and Poultry Data Changes 
Deleted items include: 
• Aquaculture pounds and number sold 
• Bee colonies sold 
• Layers and pullets combined sold 
• Mink, including pelts 
• Rabbits, including pelts 
• Total horses sold 
Added items include: 
APPENDIX B B - 1 
