Producers received a questionnaire from the agency in December. It’s taken out every five years.

Glenn Strasburg, acting deputy direction of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Illinois field office, says it’s important that the forms be filled out and returned.

“It’s used by policy makers and a lot of businesses to make decisions by U.S. Congress,” says Strasburg. “Their staff looks at this and they make decisions for the farm bill and other decisions partly based on what they see in this. They allocate money to different congressional districts based on the number of farmers.”

Strasburg explains the type of information that is gathered on the census.

“Get a lot of information on the types and sizes of farms and who’s operating these types of farms, their age and what they’re doing,” he says.

After the censuses are gathered, the UDSA will process the information. The expected release date of the 2012 report is February 2014.

The census can either be mailed or filed online.