The 1996 Census of Agriculture was conducted on May 14, 1996. A census farm is an agricultural operation that produces at least one the following products intended for sale: crops (field crops, tree fruits or nuts, berries or grapes, vegetables, seed); livestock (cattle, pigs, sheep, horses, exotic animals, etc.); poultry (hens, chickens, turkeys, exotic birds, etc); animal products (milk or cream, eggs, wool, furs, meat); or other agricultural products, Christmas trees, mushrooms, sod, honey, maple syrup products). The definition of a census farm was expanded to include commercial poultry hatcheries and operations that produced only Christmas trees. All tabulated data are subject to confidentiality restrictions prior to release. Due to confidentiality constraints, data for those geographic areas with very few agricultural operations are not released separately, but rather merged with a geographically adjacent area.