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[ Please stand by for realtime 
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>>
Good afternoon. Good afternoon, 
everyone. Let's get started.
Okay. Well, let me get this 
kicked off.
This is a special day today. 
Good afternoon and welcome, the 
behalf of USDA I am pleased to 
welcome you to this special 
program today.  My name is Scott
Hutchins, I am the  deputy 
undersecretary, REE. Act -- 
statistics, or Nass resides. It 
is a great pleasure to see you 
here today to celebrate with the
USDA  the release of the Census 
of agriculture. Everyone 
involved with the incredible 
staff, who collect and compile 
the data, commodity groups and 
organizations who
spread the word about the data, 
and hopefully will use the data 
for insights. And of course to 
the farmers and ranchers who 
respond to a range of methods. 
Indeed the Census of agriculture
is a remarkable, Schmidt matched
by infallible businesses alike. 
And anyone who works or supports
the U. S. farming and ranching, 
will gain insights from the 
census.
The USDA is a science based on 
data driven with in everything 
we do, focused on solutions that
matter. And measurable impact. 
The data from the senses along 
with scores of other from Nass 
is at the core of this 
philosophy, I could not be more 
proud of the team and the 
administrator, Mr. Hubert Hamer.
And it is my  pleasure and honor
right now to introduce Hubert 
Hamer, the administrator of the 
national  agricultural 
statistics service. [ Applause ]
>> Thank you, thank you. Thank 
you Dr. Hutchins. I appreciate 
your strong leadership, you have
not been with us long at REE, 
but you poured a strong focus on
strategic planning, and aligning
the REE programs, process and 
human resources together. We 
appreciate it. And to my Nass 
family and team, what a great 
day for us, it has been a long 
time coming, and we are so proud
we can be here to help 
disseminate the results, and 
talk about those a little bit. 
Before we get into that, I would
also like to thank our 
distinguished guest and 
partners, we have a lot of 
friends and people that have 
help dust along the way, with 
outreach and a lot of activities
surrounding the sensor up 
agriculture. -- Census of 
Agriculture. I would like to 
thank the amazing team for your 
outstanding work  and incredible
sacrifice over the last 5 years,
it has been a lot of work and a 
long time coming. I want to 
start with field office staff 
and enumerators, our 
headquarters staff here, and 
again our strategic partners 
that have been with us all the 
way along the way. It has been a
tremendous team effort, and we 
appreciate it. Mr. Secretary, I 
do not want to get caught up in 
talking about the team, it is a 
phenomenal group and we 
appreciate what they have 
accomplished through all of the 
planning, outreach, collection, 
analysis, and dissemination 
activities, we have stuck 
together as a team, we got this 
job done. We will have a lot of 
time to celebrate later this 
afternoon, if anyone would like 
to join us we will talk to about
that. And the next week at the 
administrative award of 
excellence program. We will have
time to celebrate together. And 
now, it is my distinct pleasure 
to introduce a man, who needs no
introduction. He is known 
everywhere, he is leading by 
example, going directly to our 
customers to carry the message 
from the USDA  he has visited 49
states, and I hear number 50 on 
the way pretty soon. I want to 
personally thank the secretary 
for his tremendous support, and 
for timelessly promoting the
census and other program 
activities. He has given us a 
real boost. When the secretary 
stands up and talks about the 
importance of the data and the 
decisions that will be made, it 
is very important to us, and it 
really helps us when we reach 
out to other groups and 
organizations. Right now, the 
audience -- I need audience 
participation. I am going to ask
you to stand, and welcome the 
31st secretary -- the Honorable 
Sonny Perdue as I present the  
results of the 2018 Census of 
Agriculture . 
>> [ Applause ]
>> Thank you very much.
You sure know how to command a 
standing ovation. Thank you very
much.
While I know you are proud of 
your team, we are proud of you 
as well as well as your 
leadership you mentioned that 
Dr. Hutchins has been with us 
for a few months now. And you 
had started this a long time 
ago. You have been with us 
longer than that, how long have 
you been here? 40 years. We will
ran.. -- We will rounded out. 
39.6, we do not call it 40 years
and in light of the leadership 
of the great team you 
established, we want to 
recognize you this morning 
before we get into talking about
the census  word I would like to
give you recognition of your 40 
years of service. Thank you very
much.
>> [ Applause ] 
>>
And upend. -- Upend -- a pen. 
the type of information 
the
integrity, and the 
confidentiality that has gone on
for a number of years, you are 
truly a world-class act in the 
national agricultural 
statistical services. It is a 
amazing group and the world 
depends on you. This census and 
information 
will be vitally important to 
policy decisions, investment 
decisions going forward. So this
is an important day, as we 
announce the release of the 2017
Census of Agriculture . It is a 
part of America, done every 5 
years, almost as old as the 
national census. The first 
agricultural census done 1840. 
Smart students up at the front. 
Even before there wasn't a 
department of agriculture, 
conducted in conjunction with 
the census that was performed by
Congress. So NASS 
conducts a census every 5 years,
a complete count, all of our U. 
S. farmers, ranchers and people 
who operate. We get more 
information and more detailed 
information about those people 
that operate in this
census this year. I was pretty 
surprised, have you ever sent 
out a survey, trying to get a 
response ? 71.8 percent is 
pretty good for anything. That 
is great.
>> [ Applause ]
>> It took a lot of calling and 
prompting, and many other 
things, your numerators and 
folks have been responsible and 
you have to wonderful job, 
allowing gang
contributing to an accurate 
analysis of farmers, ranchers, 
producers, who are growing and 
producing our food, fiber, fuel 
for a hungry world. So this 
little book here, it may not 
look like it, but it contains 
6.4 million points of data. You 
all read and memorize it. Okay. 
It is about the data, farms, 
ranches and about those who 
operate them. This is the only 
source of comprehensive, 
unbiased
agricultural data for every 
state, county in the nation. And
even the small plots of land, 
whether it be rural or urban, 
more than 1000 dollars of 
agricultural products were 
raised and sold, during the 
census year. That is pretty 
granular. $1000 constitutes a 
small farm, and they are in that
book.
As mentioned, we try to pride 
ourselves in being fact-based 
and data driven. This is the 
data we allow many times, making
those policy decisions for the 
USDA  we have to have data like 
this to rely on, and to help us 
improve American agriculture.
NASS is the only organization in
America, dedicated to collecting
and disseminating  agricultural 
statistics, available to the 
public, equally, for your free 
of charge, and at the same time 
you get it at noon today. 
Everybody got a copy. A good 
deal. And our agencies, 
including all of our 
missionaries, we rely on the 
data and the census for 
agriculture. After 2012,  
agricultural census, NASS  is 
continually improving, meeting 
with producers, users and 
stakeholders to gain feedback on
what data they were presenting, 
and utilizing and would be 
helpful to present a more useful
and accurate picture. They 
determined that the 2017 census 
should accurately measure the 
contribution  of all persons 
involved, and the operations and
the production typically, we 
just had one operator. Most of 
you in the farm business, and 
farmers themselves know that it 
is usually much more than that. 
There are just a few bits of 
information that we have learned
in this 2017 sentences, some of 
which may surprise you, most of 
you will probably not be. 2.0 
million farms and ranches, which
is down 3.2% from 2012, but I 
was pleasantly surprised. We 
hear a lot about corporate 
farming, industrial farming, you
reels that tester you realized 
96% farms are family-owned. 
Again, that is to history and 
the structure, and the strength 
of American agriculture. The 
average farm of these farms, the
average size 41 acres. About 
1.6% up. Covering over 900 
million acres, down 1.6%, we are
losing some land in this 
country, which ought to be a 
concern for all of us for the 
future. There are fewer middle 
sized farms with increases, but 
larger farms of 2000 acres 
increased. Fewer farms accounted
for the majority of agricultural
products sold, and 100,000 or 
105,000 farms produce 75% of all
sales and 2017. And that is down
from 119,000 and 2012. What you 
all can read the statistics but 
I want you to read it by Monday 
morning and we will have a test 
on it, 6.4 million data points. 
The great news, the 
participation demographics of 
our farmers. 11% of all 
producers had served in the 
military, veterans and our 16.79
years of age. The average work 
age of all of our work is his 
duty 7.5, which is -- 57.5. Up 
to years. I do not think that is
bad. Do you? Over 321,000 young 
producers, the USDA is concerned
about the young  and beginning 
farmers. Age 35 or less,
more than 240,000 farms and the 
forms of young producers 
surprisingly, tending to be 
larger than those with older 
producers. And one in four 
producers, 25% is the beginning 
farmer, with 10 or fewer years 
of experience. So here is the 
statistics, you women may like 
this, female produces
, surprise, surprise most 
heavily engaged in the day to 
day decision-making, along with 
record keeping and financial 
management. Have you ever been 
to a family farm? Mama is out 
there working. And many times 
from the attracted to the car, 
keeping the books and paying the
bills, we know what females 
contribute to American 
agriculture. 36% of all 
producers are female. And 56% of
all farms have at least one 
female decision maker. And 
titled force -- boss. Farmers 
are more innovative as we know 
more the time, and energy 
conscious but the number of 
farms with renewable energy, it 
has more than doubled from 2012.
Farmers with solar panels almost
triple. You see them driving 
around the countryside now. More
farms are using practices, 
reduced tillage of more than 29 
million acres of prop land, 2017
-- cropland. Those farmers are 
contributing to less greenhouse 
gas, more caption -- more 
capture of the carbon in the 
soil. Increasing number of 
farms, up 15.2% of plan cover 
crops. An increasing almost 50%.
Another good news story in the 
carbon capture and the better 
water quality of production.
Initial snapshot review shows 
that American farmers are 
adapting and innovating, also 
showing that they are involved 
in sound conservation practices.
So, thank you folks. The Census 
of Agriculture continues to tell
the amazing  story of U. S. 
agriculture and how it is 
changing. American farmers, 
family farmers with strong 
values and faith in their lives.
Before I close, I would like 
that NASS  team to stand up and 
give them a hand. Please stand 
up, all of the NASS  team.
>> [ Applause ] 
>>
So you can look at this as a 
five year lockup here. That is 
what they have done collecting 
this information for five years.
Thank you. As a data driven 
agency, the USDA is looking 
forward to  taking deeper into 
this Lich pain that you have 
provided for us, -- Rich vein. 
As well as around the world and 
the U. S. Thank you for this 
massive undertaking, NASS. For 
the American people,  they are 
definitely enriched and blessed 
with such a great snapshot in 
the 2017 sentences of 
agriculture. -- Trent nine -- 
Census of Agriculture . 
>> Thank you very much.
>> [ Applause ] 
>>
We appreciate your being here to
celebrate with us. I have a gift
for those who have participated 
in the activity. We have cake 
and punch for all visitors. We 
will ask all of the NASS staff 
to come up  for a photo with the
secretary. With that you can 
enjoy cake and punch for your 
activity, then we will join you 
in a couple of minutes. Thank 
you very much. We appreciate it.
>>
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>>
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>>
