Agriculture Department Releases Five-Year Census Data—'Christmas for Farm Nerds'

Brett Walton shares the news of the recent release of a mountain of data from the 2012 Census of Agriculture. "Every five years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture takes on the Herculean task of assessing the state of the American farm economy," writes Walton; "[the] numbers cover a stunningly broad territory, from fine-grained county assessments of production and expenses to national summaries of farms and their owners."

A few things Walton noticed from his initial study of the data:

• "Nebraska keeps its title as irrigation champion. Nebraska irrigates 8.3 million acres of land, topping California, the runner up, with 7.9 million."
• "Irrigation is moving eastward. No longer the domain of the dry west, irrigation is establishing a pivot-hold in the Corn Belt and the Midwest and is becoming dominant in the Mississippi Delta."

See the related links, found below, for a small sample of local coverage of the census findings.