The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The agency's primary responsibility is to prepare official estimates of agriculture for the nation and for each state. Each year, the employees of NASS conduct hundreds of surveys and prepare reports covering virtually every facet of U.S. agriculture -- production and supplies of food and fiber, prices paid and received by farmers, farm labor and wages, farm aspects of the industry. In addition, NASS's 46 State Statistical Offices (FO's) publish data about many of the same topics for local audiences within all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

Farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses are the grassroots source of information, collected through surveys conducted by each field office throughout the year. Survey data are collected and summarized at the state level to provide statistical indications. These indications are analyzed by statisticians in each field office who then make recommendations to the national headquarters in Washington, D.C. Statisticians in headquarters review the state recommendations and issue the state and national estimates to the public on scheduled dates throughout the year. About 300 national and 9,000 state reports are issued annually. Cooperative agreements with State governments also permit preparation and publication of county-level estimates of crops and livestock for many states. In addition, many field offices conduct surveys for other government agencies and private organizations.

NASS publications cover a wide range of subjects, from traditional crops, such as corn and wheat, to specialties, such as mushrooms and flowers; from calves born to hogs slaughtered; from agricultural prices to land in farms. The abundance of information produced has earned for NASS employees the title, "The Fact Finders of Agriculture."

The NASS mission is to serve the United States, its agriculture, and its rural communities by providing timely, accurate, and useful statistical information and services.

The New England Agricultural Statistics field office operates through a cooperative agreement between USDA and each of the six states that comprise the New England region; Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. The New England SSO is responsible for agricultural statistics in all six New England states and is centrally located in Concord, NH.

The New England Agricultural Statistics publishes several state-level reports which are accessible on the Internet and through free e-mail subscriptions. Mailed hard copies are also available by subscription. These reports include:

• Weekly Crop Weather Reports on crop development
(published May through October)

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• Monthly reports about crops, livestock, poultry, farm labor and other agricultural items
(published at the end of each month)

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• Cash receipts statistics describing income received by farmers for commodities sold
(published in September)

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• Maple Syrup production and prices
(published in June)

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• Massachusetts Cranberry production forecasts, final acreage, production and prices
(published in August and January)

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• Maine Potato acreage, yield, size and grade report and a biennial chemical usage report
(published in December and March, respectively)

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• Maine Wild Blueberry production forecasts, final production and prices
(published in August and January)

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• Our Annual Bulletin includes estimates published by the field office during the year and presents ten years of data for most series. Special features are included such as county data from the most recent Census of Agriculture, farm population statistics and more
(published in March)

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State-Level Reports: In an effort to reduce administrative and postage costs, we ask that you consider obtaining these state-level publications from the Internet. However, free subscriptions to the hard-copy reports listed above are available to farmers and agri-businesses that provide data to this office. The news media, state and local governments and educational institutions are also eligible for these reports at no charge. All others must pay a user fee as described in the State-Level subscription form. If you still want a hard copy of these free state-level publications, please use the subscription form .

Send any comments or questions to the New England Agricultural Statistics at
nass-nh@nass.usda.gov
or call us at
(603)224-9639.

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