Got this a while back. It is due next week. I have horses here, obviously and I have a farmer roll up round bales for his cattle here. Is it a good or bad idea to fill this out?
we filled it out see response below
the purpose of it is to identify active farms in the United States; even if you just own horses. We only have our own horses on the property and still filled it out to the best of our ability. They state that a farm is anything with over $1000 of sales per year or normally would’ve been sold.
the census is required by law to be filled out and completed.
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We farm so we fill it out. It helps to provide an accurate view of what is going on in US agriculture. What reason would you have to not respond?
It is the law, if you get one, you have to fill it best it applies to you and you can manage.
Even if all you do is keep marking “does not apply”, you have to return it.
We got ours a few weeks ago and sent it in next day.
If you don’t, they will keep calling you about it.
you can go online if you have the survey code number from your form (it is above the barcode on the address label)
I did it that way… I still do not know how they added my wife and youngest daughter to the “partnership” … many of the questions are questionable to me… section six they should just go ahead and request the tax payer id number for the operation as they ask everything else…
USDA wording;
“The Census of Agriculture is the responsibility of every individual who produces or grows any agricultural product, including field crops, fruits, vegetables, floriculture, and livestock, regardless of the size or type of operation. For Census of Agriculture purposes, a farm is any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the Census year.”
Yes, fill it out.
Mine is all expense and no income, but that factors into thing like estimating the impact of farming on the local economy, so every little bit helps.
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I get you, OP, it does start to feel invasive. Not to mention that some numbers are better left un-added!
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I filled ours out a number of years ago, got a registration form with a USDA number. Not sure what difference it made as both the US govt and State have us zoned as agricultural. Since we ONLY have horses the township views us as residential, if we had a cow that would be different.
Sidebar to this thread:
Weirdly I keep getting the Ag. Census form for a farm I haven’t owned for 13 years. Farm was in NJ, I sold it, moved to my farm in NY and the USDA tracked me down here and still sends me the form for the NJ farm. So no, I don’t fill it out and have never gotten one for the NY farm.
