United States and Farming

 

What happens in other part of the U.S.?

 

 

 

Major agricultural products

Satellite image of circular crop fields characteristic of center pivot irrigation in Kansas (June 2001). Healthy, growing crops are green. Corn would be growing into leafy stalks by late June. Sorghum, which resembles corn, grows more slowly and would be much smaller and therefore, possibly paler. Wheat is a brilliant gold as harvest occurs in June. Fields of brown have been recently harvested and plowed under or lie fallow for the year.

The top twenty agricultural products of the United States by value as reported by the FAO in 2003 (Products are ranked by their mass, multiplied by the 1999-2001 international prices. Mass is in metric tonnes):

1. Corn 256,904,992
2. Cattle meat 11,736,300
3. Cow's milk, whole, fresh 78,155,000
4. Chicken meat 15,006,000
5. Soybeans 65,795,300
6. Pig meat 8,574,290
7. Wheat 63,589,820
8. Cotton lint 3,967,810
9. Hen eggs 5,141,000
10. Turkey meat 2,584,200
11. Tomatoes 12,275,000
12. Potatoes 20,821,930
13. Grapes 6,125,670
14. Oranges 10,473,450
15. Rice, paddy 9,033,610
16. Apples 4,241,810
17. Sorghum 10,445,900
18. Lettuce 4,490,000
19. Cottonseed 6,072,690
20. Sugar beets 27,764,390

The only other crops to ever appear in the top 20 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 worldwide). Alfalfa and hay would both be in the top ten in 2003 if they were tracked by FAO.

[edit] Crops

[edit] Value of production

Major Crops in the U.S.A. - 1997
(in US$ billions)
Corn $24.4
Soybeans $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, [1]