Tuesday May 10 is Census Day — the day when the majority of people will have their forms completed.

Greg Peterson, the Director General Responsible for the Census of Agriculture says this year they mailed the information out to about 250 thousand farm operators.

"The Census of Agriculture is a really important exercise. It's the only survey that we do that captures information from each and every farmer from across the country," he says. "By doing this, it allows us to develop estimates at a very small geographical area, right down to the area of a rural municipality. It also allows us to identify rarer crops that are out there, so it becomes a very useful tool for us to identify very small populations."

Peterson says ideally producers will respond by May 10, but Statistics Canada will take responses all through May and into the summer. While farmer may be busy right now with seeding operations, Peterson says this year's census questionnaire has been reduced by about 30 per cent.

"We've streamlined a fair bit of content," he says, "we've reduced some content on organic farming, we've eliminated completely the requirement to report detailed finance expense information, and we have added a little bit of content to do with technology use and succession planning."

A reminder it is mandatory for all Canadian households and farming operations to complete the census.