USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) announced that full text scans of selected historical publications dating to the 1960s are now available on-line on the USDA’s Economics, Statistics and Market Information System. The system, maintained by the Cornell University Albert R. Mann Library, already contains over 125 USDA-NASS reports and datasets from 1995 to the present and is accessible at http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu.

USDA-NASS is working with the World Agricultural Outlook Board and Cornell University to increase the amount of historical data available on the Web site. “Motivated by increased demand for electronic and on-line access to historical NASS publications, NASS engaged in this project to better serve the needs of our data user community,” said Ron Bosecker, NASS Administrator. “Our mission at NASS is to provide timely, accurate and useful statistics - both current and historical.”

This first collection of scanned historical publications from the past 40 years includes, but is not limited to, annual summaries of Agricultural Prices, Crop Production, Cold Storage and Livestock Slaughter, as well as reports on Chicken and Eggs, Citrus Fruits, Crop Values, Farm Labor, Grain Stocks, Milk Production, Peanut Stocks and Processing, Rice Stocks, Turkeys and Vegetables. Gradually, other reports and additional years will be made available on-line by the Mann Library.

To view the historical data and reports, click on the “Earlier Years” icon at the bottom of each report index page. The full text scans of the historical publications are available only in PDF format. Although this is not a comprehensive electronic collection of NASS publications prior to 1995, inquires for publications not available on the Web may be submitted via e-mail to nass@nass.usda.gov.