Agriculture in the United States

Agriculture is a major industry in the United States and the country is a net exporter of food.

Major agricultural products

The top twenty agricultural products of the United States by value as reported by the FAO in 2003 (ranked in order of value with volume in metric tons):

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• Corn 256,904,992
• Cattle Meat 11,736,300
• Cow's Milk, Whole, Fresh 78,155,000
• Chicken Meat 15,006,000
• Soybeans 65,795,300
• Pig meat 8,574,290
• Wheat 63,589,820
• Cotton Lint 3,967,810
• Hen Eggs 5,141,000
• Turkey Meat 2,584,200
• Tomatoes 12,275,000
• Potatoes 20,821,930
• Grapes 6,125,670
• Oranges 10,473,450
• Rice, Paddy 9,033,610
• Apples 4,241,810
• Sorghum 10,445,900
• Lettuce 4,490,000
• Cottonseed 6,072,690
• Sugar Beets 27,764,390

The only other crops to ever appear in the top twenty in the last 40 years were, commonly, tobacco, barley, and oats, and, rarely, peanuts, almonds, and sunflower seeds (in all, only 26 of the 188 crops the FAO tracks). Alfalfa and hay would both be in the top ten in 2003 if they were tracked by FAO.

Related Topics:
Tobacco - Barley - Oat - Peanut - Almond - Sunflower - Alfalfa - Hay

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Crops

The major field crops with the value of production (in $billions) are:

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• Corn,$24.4
• Soybean,$17.7
• Wheat,$8.6
• Alfalfa,$8.3
• Cotton,$6.1
• Hay, other than alfalfa, $5.1
• Tobacco,$3.0
• Rice, $1.7
• Sorghum,$1.4
• Barley,$.9

Source: 1997 USDA-NASS reports, http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/ranking/rankus-b.txt.

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Note alfalfa and hay are not tracked by the FAO and the production of tobacco in the U.S. has fallen 60% between 1997 and 2003.

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Livestock

The major livestock industries in the United States are:

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• Dairy Cattle
• Beef Cattle
• Swine (also called hogs or pigs)
• Poultry
• Sheep

Inventories in the United States at the end of 1997 were:

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• 403,000,000 chickens
• 99,500,000 cattle
• 59,900,000 hogs
• 7,600,000 sheep

Goats, horses, turkeys and bees are also raised, though in lesser quantities. Inventory data is not as readily available as for the major industries. For the three major goat-producing states (AZ, NM, and TX) there were 1,200,000 goats at the end of 2002. There were 5,300,000 horses in the United States at the end of 1998. There were 2,500,000 colonies of bees at the end of 2002.

Related Topics:
Goat - Horse - Turkey - Bee

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