The value of agrieultural produets sold was 
requested of all operators. If the operators failed to 
report this information, estimates were made based 
on the amount of erops harvested, livestoek or 
poultry inventory, or number sold. Caution should be 
used when eomparing sales in the 2012 eensus with 
sales reported in earlier eensuses. Sales figures are 
expressed in eurrent dollars and have not been 
adjusted for inflation or deflation. 
Methane digesters. See Renewable energy 
produeing systems. 
Occupation. See Primary oeeupation of operator. 
Operator. The term operator designates a person 
who operates a farm, either doing the work or 
making day-to-day deeisions about sueh things as 
planting, harvesting, 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 
shareeropper. If a person rents land to others or has 
land worked on shares by others, he/she is 
eonsidered the operator only of the land whieh is 
retained for his/her own operation. The eensus 
eolleeted information on the total number of 
operators, the total number of women operators, and 
demographie information for up to three operators 
per farm. 
Operator characteristics. Operators (up to three 
operators per farm) were asked to report primary 
oeeupation, sex, age, raee, plaee of residenee, if 
retired, number of days worked off farm, year in 
whieh his/her operation of the farm began, year 
began operating any farm, hired manager, number of 
persons living in the operators’ households, internet 
aeeess and type of serviees, and Spanish, Hispanie, 
or Latino origin. Information on the total number of 
operators and total number of women operators was 
eolleeted from eaeh operation. The prineipal operator 
was asked to report the pereentage of total household 
ineome that came from the farm operation. In 
addition, operators two and three were asked if they 
were the spouse of the principal operator. 
Operators, number. Demographic and other 
information were collected for up to three operators 
per farm - the principal operator plus up to two 
additional operators. This may be fewer than the 
total operators on some farms. 
Operators, total. The data represent the total 
reported number of operators for the operation. 
Owned horses and ponies. Only horses and ponies 
which are owned by the operation and sold 
contribute to the total value of production of the 
operation. Horses on the operation which are not 
owned and sold do not contribute to the total value 
of production. Therefore, the value of horses owned 
sold is published instead of all sold horses. This 
removes not owned horses sold that were not part of 
an operation’s value of production. It is not possible 
to publish a value for Total horses sold in 2012 as 
the data were not summarized. 
Primary occupation of operator. Data on age and 
primary occupation were obtained from up to three 
operators per farm. The primary occupation 
classifications used were: 
1. Farming or ranch work. The operator spent 50- 
percent or more of his/her worktime during 2012 
at farming or ranching. 
2. Other. The operator spent less than 50-percent 
of his/her worktime during 2012 in farming or 
ranching operations. 
Principal operator. The person primarily 
responsible for the on-site, day-to-day operation of 
the farm or ranch business. This person may be a 
hired manager or business manager. See Operators 
for further explanation. 
Production expenses. See Total farm production 
expenses. 
Renewable energy producing systems. This is a 
new category for 2012. These types of systems 
produce power, heat, or mechanical energy by 
converting resources either to electricity or to motor 
power. 
Biodiesel, Data are for production of non-petroleum 
based diesel fuel made from vegetable oil or animal 
fats. Biodiesel can be used alone or blended with 
conventional petroleum-based diesel fuel. 
2012 Census of Agriculture APPENDIX A - 7 
USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service 
