Fresno County, CA sold $7.00 billion of crops, livestock and animal products in 2022, more than any other US county. Nine of the ten leading counties are in California, and 56 counties nationwide passed $1 billion. Farm sales are far more concentrated than farm numbers: the 100 counties with the largest sales account for 26.4% of the $543.09 billion national total, while the median county sold $87.1 million.
The fifteen leading counties
| # | County | Farm sales, 2022 | Largest group |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fresno County, CA | $7.00 billion | Fruit and nuts |
| 2 | Tulare County, CA | $6.36 billion | Milk |
| 3 | Monterey County, CA | $5.47 billion | Vegetables and melons |
| 4 | Kern County, CA | $5.01 billion | Fruit and nuts |
| 5 | Merced County, CA | $3.98 billion | Milk |
| 6 | Imperial County, CA | $3.05 billion | Vegetables and melons |
| 7 | San Joaquin County, CA | $3.03 billion | Fruit and nuts |
| 8 | Stanislaus County, CA | $2.92 billion | Fruit and nuts |
| 9 | Santa Barbara County, CA | $2.61 billion | Fruit and nuts |
| 10 | Grant County, WA | $2.61 billion | Fruit and nuts |
| 11 | Weld County, CO | $2.38 billion | Cattle and calves |
| 12 | Sioux County, IA | $2.34 billion | Cattle and calves |
| 13 | Yakima County, WA | $2.27 billion | Fruit and nuts |
| 14 | Sampson County, NC | $2.19 billion | Hogs and pigs |
| 15 | Kings County, CA | $2.13 billion | Milk |
The California counties at the top sell very different things. Fresno and Monterey earn most from fruit, nuts and vegetables, while Tulare and Merced earn most from milk. Outside California, Grant County, WA, Weld County, CO, Sioux County, IA, Yakima County, WA and Sampson County, NC reach the top fifteen, led by cattle and calves, fruit and nuts and hogs and pigs. The column on the right names each county's largest product group by sales; every county profile shows the full mix as a quilt of patches sized by value.
What US farms sell
Nationally, crops brought in 51.7% of farm sales and livestock, poultry and their products 48.3%. Grains and oilseeds form the single largest group at $168.71 billion, followed by cattle and calves at $89.38 billion. The census splits sales into 16 product groups that add up to the total, and the county quilts on this site use exactly those groups.
Crop counties and livestock counties
Many counties lean heavily one way. Of the 1,923 counties that sold at least $50 million of farm products, 270 took 90% or more of their sales from crops, and 199 took 90% or more from livestock, poultry and animal products. The lead paragraph of a county page mentions it when a county ranks near either extreme.
How much of California the top counties hold
The 9 California counties in the national top ten together account for 66.8% of the state's $59.01 billion in farm sales. California is also the leading state overall, and more than half of its farm sales come from a handful of counties.
The most concentrated product groups
Some product groups depend on a single county far more than others. The leading county for vegetables, melons and potatoes accounts for 13.4% of US sales in that group, and the leading county for horses, ponies, mules, burros and donkeys for 11.1%. At the other end, no single county holds more than 0.4% of national sales of grains, oilseeds, dry beans and dry peas.
Sales per farm
Dividing sales by the number of farms gives the average value sold per farm, a measure of scale rather than income. Among counties with at least 100 farms, Haskell County, KS has the highest figure, $8.2 million per farm, followed by Hartley County, TX and Hansford County, TX. Nationally the figure is $286,000 per farm, but most farms sell far less than that average.
What "sales" measures
The census figure is the market value of agricultural products sold: the gross value of everything sold or removed from farms in the census year, before taxes and production expenses. It counts crops sold to an elevator, animals sold to a feedlot or packer, milk sold to a processor, and products sold directly to consumers. It does not subtract the cost of feed, seed, fuel, labor or land, so a county with high sales is a county where a lot of product changes hands, not necessarily one where farms earn more. Products grown and used on the same farm, such as corn fed to the farm's own hogs, are not sales and do not appear in the total.
Sales in current dollars
National farm sales rose from $388.52 billion in 2017 to $543.09 billion in 2022, +39.8%. These are current dollars, not adjusted for inflation. A county's sales change on this site therefore mixes changes in what was produced with changes in prices. The census also reports sales by value, not profit: it says nothing about costs or income, and this site makes no statement about either.
Finding a county
Each state page lists all of its counties sorted by farm sales, with the number of farms, the average farm size and the largest product group. To rank counties by a single crop or animal instead, use the top-counties explorer.
Sources
USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2022 Census of Agriculture and 2017 Census of Agriculture, county, state and national data (bulk files at www.nass.usda.gov/datasets/). Tables and charts computed by Farm Census.