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 Agrieulture, NASS was preparing for the 2012 
Census of Agrieulture. The first team established 
was the 2012 Census Content Team. This team was 
tasked with eontent determination and report form 
development. They reviewed the 2007 report form 
eontent, solieited input from internal and external 
eustomers, developed eriteria for determining 
aeeeptanee and/or rejeetion of eontent for the 2012 
Census of Agrieulture report forms, tested the 
effeetiveness of the report forms for various modes 
of data colleetion (mail, telephone, personal 
interview, and eleetronie data reporting), and made 
reeommendations to NASS senior exeeutives for 
final determination. 
Throughout development NASS sought adviee and 
input from the data user eommunity. Integral 
partners ineluded the Advisory Committee on 
Agrieulture Statisties, State departments of 
agrieulture and other State government offieials. 
Federal ageney offieials, land grant universities, 
agrieultural trade assoeiations, media, and various 
Community Based Organizations. 
NASS eondueted the 2010 Census of Agrieulture 
Content Test in early 2011. The test eonsisted of 
three phases: eognitive pretesting, national mail-out, 
and follow-up interviews. Results from the testing 
produeed one final report form type — a 24-page 
regionalized form with 7 versions (12-AlOl thru 12- 
A107). The regionalized report forms inelude erop 
seetions designed to faeilitate reporting erops 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 
