The National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) is sponsored by the USDA:APHIS:Veterinary Services (VS). The NAHMS Layers '99 Study was designed to provide information about the nation's layer population for education and research purposes. The USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) collaborated with VS to select a statistically-valid sample from 15 states for Layers '99. The 15-state target population accounted for over three-quarters of the table egg layers in the U.S. as of December 1, 1998. The study was limited to companies with 30,000 or more layers. While the majority of farm sites were contract farms (61.0 percent), the majority of birds were located on company owned farms (72.6 percent), indicating that company owned farms... |