Indiana Ag Facts and Boone County Agriculture

Did You Know that Boone County Has Some of the Most Productive Farm Ground in the State? Check out the USDA Yield Maps and Indiana Ag Facts Below.

By the numbers:

Agriculture contributes an estimated $31.2 billion to Indiana’s economy.
Indiana is the eighth largest agricultural exporter in the nation, exporting just over $4.6 billion in 2017.
The value of unprocessed agricultural commodities sold was $11.1 billion in 2017.
The Indiana hardwoods industry has an annual economic impact of over $10 billion.
There are FFA chapters in 91 of the 92 counties in Indiana
The total employment footprint of agriculture- and forestry-related industries in the state is estimated at 188,640 jobs in 2012.
Indiana has 56,649 farming operations, with an average farm size of 264 acres.

There are more than 20.5 million turkeys in Indiana.
Indiana is the tenth largest farming state in the nation.
There are just over 94,000 farmers in Indiana.
The average age of an Indiana farmer is 55.5 years old.
Indiana’s farmers cultivated nearly 15 million acres of farmland in 2017.
There are more than 4.2 million hogs in Indiana.
Indiana has an estimated 187,000 dairy cows.
96 percent of farms are family-owned or operated.
In 2020 Indiana farmers planted a new state record of 1.5 million acres of living or overwintering covers (like cover crops)

More than 80 percent of land in Indiana is devoted to farms, forests and woodland.
4.1 of Indiana’s 4.9 million forest acres are privately owned. There are 83,000 family forest ownerships in Indiana
Hoosier forests offer a sustainable and natural raw material for manufactures. Indiana statewide timber growth exceeds removals for harvest and natural tree mortality by 2.3 times.
Indiana’s hardwood industry supports 70,000 jobs — 44,000 in primary and secondary manufacturing and 26,000 in ancillary sectors.
Through the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program program Hoosier landowners planted 329,760 trees in 2020.