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If you received a 2007 Census of Agriculture form in the mail, go ahead and dig through that stack of paperwork on your truck's dashboard right now and make the commitment to complete and return it by the Feb. 4 deadline.

I mentioned the importance of the census and the requirement of farmers to complete the census in a column shortly before Christmas, but with the form arriving during the holiday season, it was a pretty easy chore to set it aside for a later date.

As a refresher, the census is a complete count of all U.S. farms and ranches and their operators, and is conducted every five years.

This data is used by all levels of government and private entities when making agricultural decisions. For example, equipment companies review census data and farm trends when making decisions on new lines of farm equipment to manufacture; the federal government uses the data when making disaster assistance decisions; and, as I mentioned before, county Extension agents with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service use the data when answering questions about farm production in our county and region.

Here are a few interesting facts that I gleaned from a quick review of the 2002 report:

In 2002, the about 938 million acres of farm land (about 41 percent of our nation's total land mass) was reported. Looking at it another way, American farmers manage an area nearly 5.4 times the state of Texas (which has about 171.9 million total acres) to produce agricultural crops and livestock.

In 2002 there were approximately 2.13 million farmers reported in the United States. By race, farmer operators were white (2 million), black (29,000), American Indian or Alaskan Native (15,500), Asian (8,000), more than one race (7,700) and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (nearly 1,000). Based on population estimates for the country during the same time frame, this means that non-farmers outnumbered farmers by nearly 131 to 1. Lucky for the farmer, those 131 non-farmers depend upon them as the original source of the raw materials for 100 percent of their food, clothing and shelter.

Contrary to the thought of corporate farms taking over the landscape, the 2002 census report revealed that 1.91 million U.S. farms were owned by an individual or family, while only 73,500 were listed as being owned by a corporation.

Finally, the total value of all agricultural crops listed as sold in 2002 was around $207 billion. This number amounts to approximately 63.8 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product in 2006, and is an amount greater than the total economic output of 150 other countries.

In order to help ensure that all farmers are fully represented in the 2007 census, the Landowners Association of Texas has partnered with the National Agriculture Statistics Service for two Census Field Days in Northeast Texas to assist producers in Smith, Henderson, Van Zandt, Wood, Upshur, Gregg, Rusk, Panola and Shelby counties.

The first field day will be 6-8 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Smith County AgriLife Extension office in the Smith County Cotton Belt Building, 1517 W. Front St., Suite 116, Tyler. Call 903-590-2980 for directions.

The second field day will be 6-8 p.m. Jan. 31 at the Rusk County AgriLife Extension office, 113 E. Fordall St., Henderson. Call 903-657-0376 for directions.

LAT and NASS representatives will be present at these sessions to assist producers with completing the survey forms. The goal of these field days is to ensure full representation of all farmers in the 2007 Census of Agriculture. For more information about either field day, please contact Joe Radford at 903-858-2247. For more information about the LAT, please visit its Web site, www.latx.org.

Responses to the census are confidential and your information will not be shared with anyone. If you need help completing your census form, feel free to also contact the Smith County office of Texas AgriLife Extension Service. You may also complete the census online for the first time this year by following the links at www.agcounts.usda.gov.

Brian Triplett is the Smith County Extension agent for agriculture and natural resources. He can be reached at 903-590-2980 or via e-mail at b-triplett@tamu.edu.