National Agricultural Statistics Service

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, collects, summarizes, analyzes, and publishes agricultural production and marketing data on a wide range of items; statistical highlights summarize frequently requested data for the most recent year. An extensive collection of reports and datasets cover the number of farms and land in farms; areas, yield, production, and stocks of grains, hay, oilseeds, cotton, potatoes, tobacco, fruits, selected vegetables, floriculture, and selected specialty crops; inventories and production of hogs, cattle, sheep and wool, goats and mohair, mink, catfish, trout, poultry, eggs, and dairy products; prices received by farmers for products, prices paid for commodities and services, and related indexes; cold storage supplies; agricultural chemical use; and related areas of the agricultural economy. Estimates for approximately 120 crops and 45 livestock items are published in 400 reports each year. Every five years the service conducts a census of Agriculture, compiling data for every county in the United States.

NASS subcontracts to the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) for most of its statistical enumeration services. Coordination between the two agencies occurs largely through the national offices of each organization. However, each state field office of NASS also relies on the local office and field enumerators who work closely with each offices' statisticians.

NASS Kids
NASS Kids is an educational outreach program of NASS. Two animated mascots, Stanley Stat and Pie-Chart Pam, are used to teach children about statistics and how it relates to agriculture, and the work done by statisticians.