Providing graphic and statistical representation of weekly, monthly, and yearly sales, the US Export Sales Reports track primary American commodities marketed abroad, including wheat, cotton, feed grains, oilseeds, rice, beef, and hides and skins. Especially from a lay person's perspective, the level of detail of each report is astonishingly minute and analytical. For instance, for wheat and rice alone, each commodity is broken down and tracked by no fewer than six or seven specific varieties respectively. Beyond their reporting services, the FAS also tracks five year trends and makes future sales projections of listed commodities. Not only interesting from the agricultural and economic perspectives, the Export Sales Reports also serve as significant indicators of foreign trade and political relations between the United States and its major trading partners, illustrated by the reports' listing of the primary purchasers of commodities by nation. In addition to its various weekly features, the Export Sales Report site also links to a variety of other USDA sites, including detailed historical explanations of the reports' evolution and the agencies that generate them. Among the most interesting histories is the site's description of the massive Soviet purchase of US grain in 1972, the event behind the creation of the Export Sales Report.