County-Level Herbicide Use Estimates for Forty-One to Sixty Most-Used Chemicals

1987 county-level estimates detail acres treated, pounds of active ingredient used, and pounds per square mile for the forty-first through sixtieth most-used herbicides in the conterminous United States. The data was compiled by Gianessi and Puffer based on the 1987 Census of Agriculture and aggregated into county polygons derived from the National Atlas.

Use Cases

• Analyze regional herbicide application intensity by comparing pounds used per square mile across counties.
• Model historical agricultural chemical exposure by correlating acres treated and pounds of active ingredient with crop types from the 1987 Census.
• Create maps showing relative rates of herbicide use across broad regions using the county polygon boundaries and associated use totals.

Strengths

• Estimates are reported for each county polygon in the conterminous United States.
• Provides three distinct metrics per county: acres treated, pounds of active ingredient used, and pounds used per square mile.

Limitations

• Data is based on the 1987 Census of Agriculture and may be temporally stale for contemporary analysis.
• County-level cropping data is subject to suppressions due to confidentiality and census disclosure rules, potentially creating gaps.
• Estimates cover only the forty-first through sixtieth most-used herbicides, not the full spectrum of chemical use.

Provenance

Source

Gianessi and Puffer (1991), using data from the 1987 Census of Agriculture.

Collection Method

Herbicide-use estimates were aggregated into totals for all crops treated in a given county.

Time Range

1987

Geography

Conterminous United States (county-level).