Quick Links:
ARMS Documentation
Documentation for the Agricultural Resources and Management Survey (ARMS)
below consists of:
- General
documentation of the survey design, process and procedures, including
statistical methods for estimation for major components of the survey
- The
survey instruments or questionnaires administered in the survey for each
crop, year, phase, and version
Introduction
Sponsored jointly by ERS and the National Agricultural
Statistics Service (NASS), ARMS began in 1996 as a synthesis of the former
USDA cropping practice, chemical use, and farm costs and returns surveys, which
dated back to 1975.
ARMS is a series of interviews with farm operators about their farm business
and household. It is conducted annually in three phases over the course of
the survey year, which runs from June through April. The ARMS data collection
starts during the fall when production practice and cost data are collected,
and finishes in the spring when a follow-on interview collects data about
whole-farm costs like overhead, interest, and taxes.
Phase I, conducted during the summer of the reference
year:
Farmers selected for inclusion in the survey sample are screened to verify
their operating status and to determine whether they are producing commodities
targeted for data collection. This first phase is merely a screening questionnaire
used to improve survey efficiency; it does not contribute to the user data
files.
Phase II, conducted in the fall and winter of
the reference year:
Randomly selected operating farms from Phase I are interviewed to collect
information on their production practices and chemical use. Phase II mirrors
the former Cropping Practices Survey. Phase II data are collected at the
individual field or production unit level. Phase II is a series of commodity
surveys conducted to obtain physical and economic data on production inputs,
management practices, and commodity cost of production.
Phase III, conducted in the spring of the year
following the reference year:
A nationally representative sample of farmers is interviewed to obtain
information on their costs and returns during the reference year. Farmers
that reported production practices for specific commodities in Phase II are
also contacted to obtain information on their costs and returns, including
data needed to estimate the costs of production associated with their production
practices. Phase III data are collected at the whole farm level. Phase III
is designed to represent all U.S. farms and focuses on farm income and expenditures,
farm financial arrangements, and other characteristics of the farm business
and farm household.
The phase II and III components are related, in that the operators are asked
to complete both interviews-but only when designed to prepare a crop cost
of production estimate. The cost of production estimates include the enterprise
share of farm business expense items such as land taxes, insurance, fuel
expenses, etc. that are collected in the phase III interviews.
Sample Design
The ARMS survey is technically described as a multi-phase, multi-frame,
stratified, probability-weighted sampling design. What do these three characteristics
of the sample design mean?
Multiframe
NASS uses two sampling frames to select farms for the
survey:
- The
primary sample is derived from the NASS List Frame. NASS maintains
a list of farm operations that exhibit certain characteristics. The lists
are constructed and maintained from many different sources, including the
Census of Agriculture and other NASS surveys. Because some information
is already known about these farms, the list can be sorted according to
farm types and size classes.
- The
second sampling frame for ARMS is the NASS Area Frame. This
is used only to capture farms not on the List Frame, and consists
of randomly
selected
agricultural land segments that represent all land in farms. Each
year, NASS conducts a spring survey selected from the Area Frame
to estimate
crop acreage and land use. This survey identifies all land uses
within the segment, and it can be used to stratify target crops
for follow-on
surveys. A sample for ARMS is then selected from the spring survey
results. Only those farms not on the List Frame (nonoverlap) are
retained for sampling.
Stratified
Strata are divisions within the sample frames that
have particular characteristics. Farms in different strata are sampled
with a different probability of selection.
Within a stratum, the weight (expansion factor) is based on the probability
of its selection. In the Area Frame, land use or crop type can be used
to stratify target crops for follow-up surveys.
Probability-weighted
Because of the complexity of the sample design, each observation has a different
weight, or expansion factor, to reflect its probability of selection and,
therefore, what part of the sampled universe it should represent. Appropriate
sample weights (expansion factors) are provided to prepare population estimates
from the survey results. Population estimates are constructed by weighting
each sample with the appropriate expansion factor. A jackknife re-sampling
process was used with 15 additional weights from NASS for each sample to
estimate the Relative Standard Error (RSE) for each data item.
Furthermore, data from the Phase II of ARMS is divided into three data
files: 1) fertilizers, 2) pesticides, and 3) all other data designated as
the main file (e.g., field characteristics, management practices, and production
input data other than fertilizers and pesticides). Sample weights associated
with each of the three data files depends on the number of usable responses
for the respective parts of the Phase II questionnaire. The usability
of these tables for the construction of chemical or fertilizer use estimates
was determined independently from the completion of the remainder of the
questionnaire. Typically, there are slightly different response rates for
these three parts of the questionnaire, and hence, weights differ between
the main file and the two sub-files (pesticide and fertilizer). Cross-tabbing
of variables across the three data files can result in different population
estimates for the same variable.In general, such population estimate
differences across tables are minimal.
Data Collection
Trained enumerators conduct personal interviews, using questionnaires developed
by NASS and ERS, with farm operators to collect data about their farm operations
for the ARMS survey. An interviewer's manual outlines detailed enumeration
procedures for each phase of the survey. These documents provide specific
directions on how the interview is to be conducted and insight into how to
interpret each question.
Quality Control
NASS provides enumerator training prior to the survey through a series of
enumerator workshops. NASS Headquarters and ERS provide training materials
to the State survey statisticians who conduct the training.
After questionnaires are completed by the enumerators, each questionnaire
is reviewed by supervisory enumerators for completeness, inconsistent responses,
or errors, and then transferred to a NASS State office. Supervisory statisticians
also review each questionnaire before it is keyed into an electronic format.
A computerized edit routine is then used to identify other potential errors
or inconsistencies, checking that responses fall within expected ranges and
that answers are consistent. When responses are anomalous, State survey statisticians
investigate and either correct or verify the responses. A survey administration
manual provides specific details about survey administration and data processing
procedures.
Source, Content, and Coverage
ARMS is an ongoing program surveying U.S. farms in the 48 contiguous States
and covering specific commodities on a rotating basis.
Farms
ARMS data are collected at both the individual field or production unit
level (Phase II), and for the whole farm (Phase III). The exact questions
asked vary with the type of crop or livestock enterprise being sampled. Download
the Survey to see the questions asked for Phases II and III for
specific crops and livestock in specific years.
The target population for ARMS is the official USDA farm population in the
48 contiguous States, which is defined as all establishments, except institutional
farms, that sold or would normally have sold at least $1,000 of agricultural
products during the year.
Commodities
Commodity-specific information is collected on a rotating basis in both the
field-level (Phase II) and whole-farm (Phase III) portions of the ARMS.
Production practice data for major crop and livestock activities (corn,
soybeans, wheat, cotton, dairy, and hogs) are gathered more often than
that for other commodities (other feed grains, other small grains, sugarbeets,
rice, peanuts, tobacco, and poultry). Livestock data (cow-calf, hogs, and
dairy) have been collected approximately every 5 years, on a staggered
rotation.
States
The States included in the survey each year vary, depending on the crops
surveyed and to help minimize respondent burden. Field-level data collected
in ARMS Phase II surveys do not represent the total U.S. acreage of each
crop surveyed, but generally represent over 90 percent of acreage and production
of the target commodity. The sampling used in ARMS Phase II was not intended
to support State estimates, but sufficient data were obtained in many States
to report these estimates. However, the ability to partition data for individual
States is very limited.
States surveyed by
commodity and year |
Apples |
2007 |
CA |
MI |
NY |
NC |
OR |
PA |
WA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Corn |
1996 |
|
|
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
MI |
MN |
MO |
NE |
|
NC |
|
OH |
PA |
SC |
SD |
TX |
WI |
|
|
|
|
1997 |
|
|
IL |
IN |
IA |
|
|
MI |
MN |
MO |
NE |
|
|
|
OH |
|
|
SD |
|
WI |
|
|
|
|
1998 |
CO |
|
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
MI |
MN |
MO |
NE |
|
NC |
|
OH |
PA |
|
SD |
TX |
WI |
|
|
|
|
1999 |
CO |
|
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
MI |
MN |
MO |
NE |
|
NC |
|
OH |
|
|
SD |
TX |
WI |
|
|
|
|
2000 |
CO |
|
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
MI |
MN |
MO |
NE |
NY |
NC |
ND |
OH |
PA |
|
SD |
TX |
WI |
|
|
|
|
2001 |
CO |
GA |
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
MI |
MN |
MO |
NE |
NY |
NC |
ND |
OH |
PA |
|
SD |
TX |
WI |
|
|
|
|
2005 |
CO |
GA |
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
MI |
MN |
MO |
NE |
NY |
NC |
ND |
OH |
PA |
|
SD |
TX |
WI |
|
|
|
|
Cotton |
1996 |
|
AZ |
AR |
CA |
GA |
LA |
MS |
|
|
|
TN |
TX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1997 |
AL |
AZ |
AR |
CA |
GA |
LA |
MS |
MO |
NC |
SC |
TN |
TX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1998 |
AL |
AZ |
AR |
CA |
GA |
LA |
MS |
|
NC |
|
TN |
TX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1999 |
AL |
AZ |
AR |
CA |
GA |
LA |
MS |
|
NC |
|
TN |
TX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2000 |
AL |
AZ |
AR |
CA |
GA |
LA |
MS |
MO |
NC |
|
TN |
TX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2003 |
AL |
AZ |
AR |
CA |
GA |
LA |
MS |
MO |
NC |
SC |
TN |
TX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2007 |
AL |
|
AR |
CA |
GA |
LA |
MS |
MO |
NC |
SC |
TN |
TX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Soybeans |
1996 |
AR |
|
IL |
IN |
IA |
|
|
LA |
|
|
MN |
MS |
MO |
NE |
|
|
OH |
|
|
TN |
|
WI |
|
|
1997 |
AR |
DE |
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
LA |
|
MI |
MN |
MS |
MO |
NE |
NC |
|
OH |
PA |
SD |
TN |
|
WI |
|
|
1998 |
AR |
|
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
LA |
|
MI |
MN |
MS |
MO |
NE |
NC |
|
OH |
|
SD |
TN |
|
|
|
|
1999 |
AR |
|
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
LA |
|
MI |
MN |
MS |
MO |
NE |
NC |
|
OH |
PA |
SD |
TN |
|
|
|
|
2000 |
AR |
|
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
LA |
|
MI |
MN |
MS |
MO |
NE |
NC |
ND |
OH |
|
SD |
TN |
|
WI |
|
|
2002 |
AR |
|
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
LA |
MD |
MI |
MN |
MS |
MO |
NE |
NC |
ND |
OH |
|
SD |
TN |
VA |
WI |
|
|
2006 |
AR |
|
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
LA |
|
MI |
MN |
MS |
MO |
NE |
NC |
ND |
OH |
|
SD |
TN |
VA |
WI |
|
|
Durum Wheat |
1996 |
|
|
ND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1997 |
|
|
ND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1998 |
CA |
MT |
ND |
SD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2000 |
|
|
ND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2004 |
|
MT |
ND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other Spring Wheat |
1996 |
|
MN |
MT |
ND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1997 |
|
MN |
MT |
ND |
|
SD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1998 |
ID |
MN |
MT |
ND |
OR |
SD |
WA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2000 |
|
MN |
MT |
ND |
|
SD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2004 |
ID |
MN |
MT |
ND |
OR |
SD |
WA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Winter Wheat |
1996 |
|
|
CO |
DE |
|
ID |
|
KS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MT |
NE |
|
|
OK |
OR |
|
SD |
TX |
WA |
1997 |
|
|
CO |
|
|
ID |
IL |
KS |
|
|
|
|
|
MO |
MT |
NE |
|
OH |
OK |
OR |
PA |
SD |
TX |
WA |
1998 |
|
CA |
CO |
|
GA |
ID |
IL |
KS |
|
LA |
|
MN |
MS |
MO |
MT |
NE |
NC |
OH |
OK |
OR |
|
SD |
TX |
WA |
2000 |
AR |
|
CO |
|
|
ID |
IL |
KS |
KY |
|
|
|
|
MO |
MT |
NE |
NC |
OH |
OK |
OR |
|
SD |
TX |
WA |
2004 |
|
|
CO |
|
|
ID |
IL |
KS |
|
|
MI |
|
|
MO |
MT |
NE |
|
OH |
OK |
OR |
|
SD |
TX |
WA |
Peanuts |
1999 |
AL |
|
GA |
NC |
TX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2004 |
AL |
FL |
GA |
NC |
TX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Potatoes |
1996 |
|
ID |
|
ME |
|
|
|
|
|
WA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1997 |
|
ID |
|
ME |
|
MN |
ND |
OR |
|
WA |
WI |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1999 |
CO |
ID |
IN |
ME |
MI |
MN |
ND |
OR |
PA |
WA |
WI |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rice |
2000 |
AR |
CA |
LA |
MS |
|
TX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2006 |
AR |
CA |
LA |
MS |
MO |
TX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sugarbeets |
2000 |
CA |
CO |
ID |
MI |
MN |
MT |
NE |
ND |
OR |
WA |
WY |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sunflowers |
1999 |
KS |
ND |
SD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oats |
2005 |
IL |
IA |
KS |
MI |
MN |
NE |
NY |
ND |
PA |
SD |
TX |
WI |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Barley |
2003 |
CA |
ID |
MN |
MT |
ND |
PA |
SD |
WA |
WI |
WY |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sorghum |
2003 |
CO |
KS |
MO |
NE |
OK |
SD |
TX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Flue-cured Tobacco |
1996 |
GA |
NC |
SC |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cow-calf |
1996 |
CA |
CO |
FL |
ID |
IL |
KS |
KY |
LA |
MO |
MT |
NE |
NM |
ND |
OK |
OR |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hogs |
1998 |
AL |
AR |
CO |
GA |
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
MI |
MN |
MO |
NE |
NC |
OH |
OK |
SC |
SD |
TN |
UT |
VA |
WI |
|
|
2004 |
|
AR |
CO |
GA |
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
MI |
MN |
MO |
NE |
NC |
OH |
OK |
PA |
SD |
|
|
VA |
WI |
|
|
Dairy |
2000 |
AZ |
CA |
FL |
GA |
ID |
IL |
IN |
IA |
KY |
MI |
MN |
MO |
NM |
NY |
OH |
PA |
TN |
TX |
VT |
VA |
WA |
WI |
|
|
2005 |
AZ |
CA |
FL |
GA |
ID |
IL |
IN |
IA |
KY |
MI |
MN |
MO |
NM |
NY |
OH |
PA |
TN |
TX |
VT |
VA |
WA |
WI |
|
|
Learn More
Review more documentation of the survey design, process and procedures,
including statistical methods for estimation for major components of the
survey:
Get the Survey Instruments
Download the survey questionnaires (pdf):
|