Farm Bureau Encouraging Farmers to Respond to Census of Agriculture

Kieffer: The Census of Agriculture is done every five years. It covers all of agriculture production. And it's the one and only complete count of farms and ranches in America, and the people who operate them.

Kieffer: It's used by lawmakers not only at the federal level, but also at state and local level to make important decisions that impact rural communities. The Census of Agriculture is also used by organizations like Farm Bureau and those who advocate on behalf of farm and ranch families. It's also used by community planners and others making decisions that impact how land is used at the local level.

Kieffer: Farmers and ranchers are concerned about their farm data and understandably so. But the USDA in this case, particularly it's the National Agricultural Statistics Service, they are bound by federal law to keep data secure, and they only publish the data in aggregated terms. So, no individual names or addresses or identifying features are released in any of the data. Instead, it is truly just aggregated information that is put out for public use.