Questionnaire Content Changes

Content Changes for 2017 Census of Agriculture

All sections

• Removed “principal operator” wording in most places throughout the questionnaire (for example, Type of Organization section, Personal Characteristics section, internet question)

Personal Characteristics Section

• Changed wording from “involved in day to day decisions” to “involved in the decisions”.

• Removed “principal operator” wording in most places (see next change), including the column headings for listing the person’s involved in decisions.

• Added “Is this person a principal operator or senior partner?” and replaced “is operator 2 or 3 the spouse of the principal operator?” with “is this person the spouse of a principal operator or senior partner”?

• Added decision making questions.

• Added “is this person completing this form?”

• Added the veteran question.

• Removed “”What percent of this person’s total household income came from this operation?”

• Moved internet question and number of households who share in the income to other sections.

Type of Organization

• Changed the wording of the ownership question.

Land Use Practices

• Added “how many acres on this operation have been irrigated at least once in the past five years (2013-2017)?”

Crop Insurance and Government Programs Section

• Removed “Direct, counter cyclical and ACRE payments received in 2012 as defined under the 2008 Farm Bill”.

• Removed “Amount received in 2012 from loan deficiency payments, marketing loan gains, and net value of commodity certificates”.

• Added “do you know that you have the right to appeal ad adverse program decision to USDA’s National Appeals Division?”

Grain Storage Capacity

• Removed section.

Field Crops Section

• Added a question for “amount used on the operation for feed, seed, etc.” for each field crop

• Added 0verall number of acres harvested and acres irrigated.

Hay Section

• Added “amount used on the operation for feed, seed, etc.” for each type of hay.

• Added an option for the respondent to report in tons harvested or number of bales/weight per bale

• Some hay categories were combined.

Fruit/nuts/berries

• Combined into one section with new wording for column headings.

Hogs and pigs

• The inventory categories were combined into one question.

Sheep and lambs

• Sheep and lamb categories were combined into one question.

Equine Section

• Removed “For the horses and ponies NOT OWNED BY YOU reported in item 3 above, mark the one item which best describes they are on this operation: (operation is a race track, boarding facility, etc.)”.

Practices

• Value added question expanded to ask for the type of product and the gross value of sales.

Marketing practices

• Expanded questions to get the type of product and value of sales, not just a yes/no for food items marketed directly to consumers and to other outlets.

Fertilizers, Chemicals, and Soil Conditioners Applied

• Added “Acres of cropland and/or pastureland treated with organic fertilizer.”

Production Expenses

• Added additional breakout to capture “cover crop seed expense”  

• Added “medical supplies, veterinary and custom services for livestock.”

• Added “total expenses” to the end of the list of production expenses.