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50 State Agricultural Rankings
North Carolina
Agriculture
The tables below offer information about North Carolina agriculture from the general agricultural groups to the more specific commodities or products. The ranking assigned to a given commodity is based on the commodity's cash receipts; how much money it made.
Commodity groups cash receipts - 2004
As you can see from the table below, North Carolina ranks 8th among the states for total agricultural production. Helped by a very strong showing in the livestock products category, North Carolina ranks among the top ten states for total agricultural production.
| Commodity groups cash receipts - 2004 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product Group | Value ($1,000) | % State total | State rank |
| All commodities | 8,210,497 | 100.0% | 8 |
| Livestock & livestock products | 5,351,344 | 65.2% | 6 |
| Crops | 2,859,153 | 34.8% | 13 |
| Source: USDA:Economic Research Service | |||
North Carolina's top five commodities by cash receipts - 2004
This table lists North Carolina's top commodities in each of North Carolina's two agriculutural groups, livestock and crops.
| North Carolina's top five commodities by cash receipts - 2004 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Livestock products | % State total | Crop products | % State total |
| Hogs | 25.3% | Greenhouse/nursery | 11.4% |
| Broilers (9-12 week old chickens) | 24.9% | Tobacco | 7.6% |
| Turkeys | 5.5% | Cotton | 3.7% |
| Cattle and calves | 3.1% | Soybeans | 3.5% |
| Chicken eggs | 2.9% | Corn for grain | 2.2% |
| Source: USDA:Economic Research Service | |||
Hogs are North Carolina's top livestock product and, along with broilers, add up to just over 1/2 of the state's total agricultural production. Turkeys are also important livestock products, followed by cattle and calves and chicken eggs.
Greenhouse and nursery products are the most important commodities in the "crops" agricultural group. Tobacco is very important followed by the cotton, soybean, and grain corn crops.
Leading commodities for cash receipts - 2004
This table offers a more complete view of the most important agricultural products of North Carolina.
| Leading commodities for cash receipts - 2004 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Value ($1,000) | % State Value | |
| 1. Hogs | 2,078,800 | 25.3% | |
| 2. Broilers (9-12 week old chickens) | 2,041,785 | 24.9% | |
| 3. Greenhouse/nursery | 932,871 | 11.4% | |
| 4. Tobacco | 620,085 | 7.6% | |
| 5. Turkeys | 448,812 | 5.5% | |
| 6. Cotton | 304,438 | 3.7% | |
| 7. Soybeans | 287,894 | 3.5% | |
| 8. Cattle and calves | 258,469 | 3.1% | |
| 9. Chicken eggs | 239,590 | 2.9% | |
| 10. Corn for grain | 181,728 | 2.2% | |
| 11. Dairy products | 170,796 | 2.1% | |
| 12. Sweet potatoes | 90,248 | 1.1% | |
| 13. Peanuts | 77,112 | 0.9% | |
| 14. Wheat | 72,825 | 0.9% | |
| 15. Blueberries | 32,235 | 0.4% | |
| 16. Cucumbers | 30,744 | 0.4% | |
| 17. Hay | 20,157 | 0.2% | |
| 18. Tomatoes | 17,980 | 0.2% | |
| 19. Apples | 17,653 | 0.2% | |
| 20. Strawberries | 15,840 | 0.2% | |
| 21. Potatoes | 15,057 | 0.2% | |
| 22. Aquaculture | 12,930 | 0.2% | |
| 23. Corn, sweet | 11,475 | 0.1% | |
| 24. Cabbage | 11,200 | 0.1% | |
| Beans, snap * | |||
| * Commodities at the bottom of the above ranked list of commodities and having no accompanying data would have appeared within the ranked list of leading commodities, but were excluded to avoid disclosure of confidential information about individual producers. | |||
| Source: USDA:Economic Research Service | |||
The 2004 table above contains information about North Carolina agricultural production provided by the Economic Research Service at the United States Department of Agriculture.
The first column of the table lists the product (commodity).
The second column of the table lists a number representing the dollar value of the product. This number is not the dollar value of the product. This number represents the dollar value of the product in thousands of dollars. For example, the number listed for the value of hogs raised in North Carolina is 2,078,800. This number represents a dollar value of $2,078,800,000 (2,078,800 x 1,000): two billion, seventy-eight million, eight hundred thousand dollars.
The third column of the table lists the percent (part) of the total agricultural value produced in North Carolina. For example, hogs make up 25.3% of North Carolina's total agricultural production value. The dollars generated by the production of hogs account for a little over 1/4 North Carolina's total agricultural production.
National ranking highlights - 2004
- Ranks first in production of sweet peppers (31% of U.S. production).
- Ranks first in production of tobacco (41% of U.S. production).
North Carolina farms and farmland - 2004
Because of different rounding methods (e.g., farm acres given by the National Argriculture Statistics Service), percentage of farmland per state should be considered a rough estimate.
| North Carolina farms and farmland - 2004 | Number of farms | Total farm acres | Percent of state | Average farm size (acres) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 52,000 | 8,996,000 | 29% | 173 |
| Source: USDA:National Agriculture Statistics Service | |||
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