The Agricultural Statistics Program

At present, the demand for agricultural statistics, which the Department’s program endeavors to meet with the resources available, covers a broad field. In addition to statistics concerning production, prices, marketings, farm employment, and wage rate, the Bureau of Agricultural Economics maintains such regular recurring statistical series or estimates as: Indexes of farm production; farmers' cash receipts and expenditures; parity prices and parity income; gross and net farm income; estimates of per capita food consumption for individual commodities; changes in land values and volume of sales of farm real estate; farm taxes and tax returns, specific types of farming; estimates of farm population; migration to and from the farm; and similar series which are prepared by bringing together and studying large masses of data collected by the Bureau and other agencies (See Appendix A – “Who Uses Agricultural Statistics”). To meet the needs, the Bureau of Agricultural Economics publishes numerous basic statistical series throughout the year. Included are series of current estimates of production, stocks, and prices of over 150 farm products, and also farm wages and employment. (See Appendix B – “Agricultural Statistical Series Published by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics”.)