Ranked: America’s Top Crops by Acres Harvested in 2023
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Most of the American tilled farmland is taken up by one of three top crops. And interestingly, wheat isn’t one of them.
This graphic breaks down the most harvested crops in the U.S., by acres reaped in 2023. Data is sourced from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Corn is King in America
By acreage, corn is the most planted crop in the U.S., covering 93 million acres, an area almost the size of Montana.
RankCropArea Harvested (2023, Acres)
1Corn93M
2Soybean82M
3Hay53M
4Wheat37M
5Cotton7M
6Sorghum6M
7Rice3M
8Barley3M
9Canola2M
10Peanuts2M
11Sunflower1M
12Dry edible beans1M
13Sugar beets1M
14Potatoes960K
15Dry edible peas941K
16Sugarcane932K
17Oats831K
18Proso Millet572K
19Lentils523K
20Chickpeas359K
21Rye322K
22Mustard seed238K
23Tobacco188K
24Flaxseed160K
25Safflower126K
26Hops54K
27Peppermint31K
28Spearmint12K
29Rapeseed10K
N/ATotal298M
Note: Figures rounded.
Meanwhile, soybean (82 million acres) could blanket New Mexico, and hay (53 million acres) could spread over Kansas.
All together, their fields together account for 75% of all harvested cropland in the country, an area more than the size of Texas.
However, this isn’t the full picture. Corn and soybean may be separated by about 11 million cultivated acres between them, but their output gap is much larger.
Yields of Fields
America produced more than 500 million metric tons of corn in 2023 compared to 113 million metric tons of soybean.
As it happens, corn yields, (measured in bushels per acre) are nearly 4x higher than soybean yields. More than a hundred years of research and investment has quite literally made America a corn country. On average it accounts for one-third of global corn production far eclipsing closest competitor China.
Importantly corn, soybean, and hay are used mostly for animal feed in America, though corn is also used for biofuels and manufacturing high fructose corn syrup.
Other major crops by area harvested include: cotton (7 million acres), sorghum (6 million acres), rice, barley, and canola (all 2 million acres each).
Learn More on the Voronoi App
For related content check out Comparing Corn Yields to Wheat and Soybean which tracks bushels per acre produced for these three crops over a hundred years.
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