1987 U.S. County Livestock Holdings from Agricultural Census

Estimates of livestock holdings in counties in the conterminous United States as reported in the 1987 Census of Agriculture. Data includes counts of animals, number of farms, and monetary values in thousands of dollars, derived from surveys of farms selling over $1,000 in agricultural products. The dataset was created by the U.S. Department of Commerce and uses county boundaries from the 1970 National Atlas.

Use Cases

• Mapping relative livestock holdings across U.S. counties using geospatial polygon attributes.
• Analyzing regional agricultural economics by comparing monetary values in thousands of dollars for livestock.
• Studying farm concentration by examining the number of farms attribute per county.
• Creating visual displays of specific livestock counts, such as milk cows, across broad regions.

Strengths

• Data is derived from the official 1987 U.S. Census of Agriculture, an authoritative national survey.
• County-level geospatial polygons enable precise regional mapping and analysis.
• Includes multiple measurement types: animal counts, farm counts, and monetary values.

Limitations

• Data is from a single year (1987) and is temporally stale for contemporary analysis.
• Some county boundary data is sourced from 1970 maps, which may not reflect later jurisdictional changes.
• Estimates are based on surveys of farms with over $1,000 in sales, potentially excluding very small operations.

Provenance

Source

1987 Census of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Commerce.

Collection Method

Automated processing of raw census survey data into ARC/INFO coverage attributes.

Time Range

1987, with some included information from 1982.

Freshness

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Geography

Counties in the conterminous United States.