Tennessee Agriculture
Total farms: 69,500
Average farm size: 154 acres
39.6% of the land in Tennessee is farmland.
Economic impact: $89 BILLION
366,000 people in Tennessee employed by agriculture and forestry.
Farmers markets: 129
Top commodities: soybeans, corn, wheat, cotton, hay, tobacco, cattle & calves, broiler chickens, fresh-market tomatoes and dairy products
Production value: $5,200,000,000
59% crops & 41% livestock
Beef cattle are produced in every county in Tennessee.
Tennessee is one of the top beef-producing states in the nation.
In 2022, cattle and calves brought $687 million in cash receipts.
In 2021, Tennessee had an inventory of 1.68 million head.
Cattle and Calves rank #3 in the state for total cash receipts.
Tennessee ranks 17th in corn acreage in the U.S. and 19th in total corn for grain production.
The largest corn-producing counties in the state are in the western and central regions.
In 2022, corn brought in $678.3 million in cash receipts with more than 800,000 harvested acres.
In 2022, the crop brought $344.1 million in cash receipts.
Tennessee ranks ninth in cotton production on the national level.
The majority of the crop is grown in the Western and Delta part of the state.
Tennessee had 330,000 acres of cotton that yielded 710,000 bales in 2022.
Tennessee has six commercial milk processing plants in Nashville, Murfreesboro, Memphis, Powell and Athens.
The state is home to approximately 170 registered dairies.
In 2021, dairy products brought $97.1 million in cash receipts.
Tennessee produced 508 million pounds of milk in 2021.
Tennessee’s forests cover 14 million acres, or 52% of the state.
Tennessee had $288 million timber sales in 2020.
Private Landowners own 84% of Tennessee forests.
Farmers across Tennessee harvested 1.7 million acres of hay in 2021.
In 2020, hay brought $192.9 million in cash receipts.
Tennessee ranks No. 11 in the U.S. for hay production.
Tennessee produced 4 million tons of hay in 2021.
In 2021, Tennessee had a total inventory of 305,000 hogs.
In 2021, hogs brought $121.5 million in cash receipts.
Tennessee’s poultry industry has an overall economic impact of $6.55 billion.
Tennessee produced more than 195 million head of broiler chickens in 2021.
Poultry provides more than 27,000 direct and indirect jobs and accounts for over $438 million paid annually in state and federal taxes.
Broilers brought in $972.6 million in cash receipts.
In 2020, 1.13 billion pounds of meat was produced.
Tennessee currently ranks 16th in the U.S. for number of broilers on farms.
Broilers are on more than 500 family farms and Tennessee has close to 1,650 commercial broiler and breeder houses.
Soybeans are planted on more acres than any other row crop in Tennessee and is currently the #1 commodity in the state in cash receipts.
In 2022, Tennessee farmers harvested 1.62 million acres of soybeans, which resulted in a total production of 77.76 million bushels of the crop.
Cash receipts for soybeans in 2022 totaled $1,098.8 million.
Soybeans are Tennessee’s #1 ag export.
Tennessee farmers harvested 12,900 acres of tobacco in 2021 that produced nearly 32 million pounds of the crop.
Tennessee ranks No. 4 in the nation for tobacco production
In 2021, tobacco brought in $78.9 million in cash receipts.
Tennessee’s climate is conducive for the production of high-quality, low-protein, soft red winter wheat.
In 2021, wheat brought in $141.1 million in cash receipts.
Farmers harvested 330,000 acres which resulted in the production of more than 23.4 million bushels of winter wheat.
Nursery crops ranked 4th in the state for total cash receipts in 2019, which average around $285 million.
McMinnville (Warren County) is considered the “Nursery Capital of the World.”
Tennessee ranks in the top five states in the nation in production of tomatoes and snap beans.
In 2018, Tennessee vegetable production brought in almost $67 million.