Subject-Matter Description

This report summarizes selected statistics from the 1992 Census of Agriculture by congressional districts. The census of agriculture, conducted every 5 years, is a comprehensive source of statistics about the Nation s farms and ranches, and the only source of consistent, comparable data at the county level.

This report marks the first time that statistics from the census of agriculture have been published by congressional district. Selected statistics are presented by congressional district for all 50 states except Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Virginia. At the time of census processing, information for these states was not available to properly assign congressional district coding due to the redistricting that occurred prior to the 104th congress.

Purpose and Tabular Presentation

The census of agriculture has traditionally provided agricultural statistics at the national, state, and county levels. The purpose of this report is to provide a brief profile of farms and farm operators within congressional districts. This profile provides an idea of the importance of farming to the congressional district. Data presented include:

Number of farms
Percent of farms with sales of less than $10,000
Percent of farms with sales of more than $100,000
Percent of farms receiving government payments
Percent of operators whose principal occupation was farming
Percent of operators age 65 years and over
Percent of operators working 200 days or more off the farm


General Terms

Farm. For census purposes, a farm is any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year.

Farms receiving government payments. This category represents the value of all payments received from Federal Farm Programs in 1992, such as deficiency payments, support price payments, indemnity programs, disaster payments, paid land diversion, payments for enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program or Wetlands Reserve Program (CRP or WRP), and payments received for approved soil and water conservation projects.

Market value of agricultural products sold. This category represents the gross market value before taxes and production expenses of all agricultural products sold or removed from the place in 1992 regardless of who received the payment. It includes sales by the operator as well as the value of any shares received by partners, landlords, contractors, or others associated with the operation. In addition, it includes receipts from placing commodities in the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) loan program in 1992.

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, 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 sharecropper.

Occupation farming. The operator spent 50 percent or more of his/her worktime in 1992 in farming or ranching.

How Farms Were Assigned To Congressional Districts

The census of agriculture publishes statistics on farms and ranches by county. For purposes of this report, farms were assigned to congressional districts according to two criteria. In the majority of cases where counties fall entirely within a congressional district, farms were assigned to the district based on the census county. However, for the 15 percent of counties which include multiple congressional districts, the address of the farm operation was used to assign the farm to the appropriate district. Farm operations that could not be assigned to congressional district by county location or address, were included under the category of farms not assigned.

Related Information

Detailed census of agriculture information on commodities; farm operator characteristics; gross sales; expenditures; use of chemicals, fertilizers, and irrigation; land use, ownership, and tenure characteristics are available at the county, state and US level. The information is in printed and electronic formats (CD-ROM). For more information contact:

• General information requests 800-523-3215
• Crops and Livestock 301-763-8569
• Economics and Resources 301-763-8514