Agency Background
lUnited States Dept. of Agriculture
–National Agricultural Statistics Service
–June Agricultural Survey (JAS) – National in Scope
l41,000 farms visited
l11,000 one-square mile sample area segments visited
lMost states contain between 150 – 400 segments
lDerive planted acreage estimate
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–Cropland Data Layer piggybacks on JAS
lUnbiased statistical estimator of crop area
–State and county level estimates
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•Every June approximately 41,000 farms are visited by enumerators or receive questionnaires by mail as part of the USDA/NASS June Agricultural Survey (JAS).  These farmers are asked to report the acreage, by crop, that was planted or that they intend to plant, and the acreage they expect to harvest.  Approximately 11,000 area segments are selected nationwide for the JAS.  This represents approximately 2.5 percent of the total land area in the entire United States.
•A segment can range in size from four to eight square miles in open range areas; to about 1 square mile in cultivated areas; to 0.1 of a square mile in urban areas. This division allows intensively cultivated land segments to be selected with a greater frequency than those in less intensively cultivated areas.   Sample segments representing cultivated areas are selected at a rate of about 1 out of 125, whereas sample segments in land use classifications with decreasing amounts of cultivated land are selected at rates ranging from 1 out of 250 to 1 out of 500.
•Every field/land use within each segment is accounted for on the survey.