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About the Agricultural Census

Massachusetts Agricultural Data 2017

Every five years, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducts a census of U.S. agriculture. The objective is to obtain a complete picture of agriculture in the nation. These web pages provide an overview of the results of the 2017 Census in Massachusetts.

Basic census information about Massachusetts agriculture is presented with comparisons to previous census years in the pages of this website. The basic statistical unit of measurement is a “farm,” defined as any place that produces $1,000 or more of agricultural products. What is a farm?

You will notice that we show two values for 1997 in a number of our graphs and tables. This is because the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) changed its reporting for the 2002 Agricultural Census, showing coverage adjusted totals for all data. In previous years, coverage adjusted totals were only available for some data and were not presented in the main tables. To illustrate how the coverage adjustments affected descriptive measures, both unadjusted and adjusted measures are shown for 1997 in a number of graphs and tables. What is a coverage adjustment?