Census of Ag Economics

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

Today we’re taking a farm economics lesson, census-style, on your Southest Regional Ag News as we break down some information from the latest Census of Agriculture.

Conducted every five years, the Census shows that the overall value of agricultural production and income increased between 2017 and 2022. The largest operations and a small number of states accounted for the majority of agricultural production and sales. Five commodities accounted for two thirds of the value of agricultural production.

So who were the top states and what were those top five commodities?

The top 10 states accounted for 55% of sales in 2022. As in 2017, California was the largest provider of agricultural products. California was followed by Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Again, we are looking at dollar value of agricultural sales here. North Carolina, coming in at number eight, was as close as it came to home for us.

As for commodities, cattle and calves was the top ranked commodity with $89.4 billion in sales. Up next in the top five: corn. It was followed by poultry and eggs, soybeans, and milk.