Iowa Leads Nation in Organic Oat, Soybean Production

By CnAgri2012-10-08 19:55:31 Print

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-certified organic growers in the United States sold more than $3.5 billion organically grown agricultural commodities in 2011, according to the results of the 2011 Certified Organic Production Survey, released by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). NASS conducted the survey for USDA's Risk Management Agency to help refine federal crop insurance products for organic producers.

"This is the first time we have conducted a survey focused solely on the USDA-certified organic producers," said Hubert Hamer, chairperson of NASS's Agricultural Statistics Board. "With this survey's results, policymakers will be able to better assess the Federal Crop Insurance program and its impact on the organic industry."

Mirroring its conventional counterpart, corn leads organic field crops in sales and accounted for more than $101.5 million in 2011. The only other field crops to have more than $50 million in sales were alfalfa dry hay and winter wheat, accounting for $69.5 million and $54 million in sales respectively.

When it comes to organic field crops acreage, Wisconsin leads the nation with more than 110,000 acres harvested in 2011. Wisconsin is followed by New York, with organic growers harvesting more than 97,000 acres. California closely follows the Empire state growers with more than 91,000 acres of organic field crops harvested in 2011. These top three states illustrate just how geographically diverse organic crop production is in the United States.

In addition to looking at organically produced crops, the survey also gathered information on the organically raised livestock, which accounted for $1.31 billion in sales in 2011. Organic milk was the top livestock commodity last year, accounting for $765 million in sales. The other key organic livestock commodities were chicken eggs and broiler chickens, earning $276 million and $115 million in sales respectively.

The survey results also include statistics on organically grown fruit and vegetables, value-added products and marketing outlets. The full results of the survey are available online at http://bit.ly/2011OrganicSurvey.

The survey counted 9,140 USDA certified organic U.S. farms and ranches. These operations comprised 3.65 million acres of land, of which 1.51 million acres were harvested cropland and 1.62 million acres were pasture or rangeland. Iowa ranked 5th in the nation for the number of certified organic farms in 2011, with 467 farms comprising 81,634 total acres.

Iowa's total organic product sales totaled $60.7 million and accounted for 2 percent of the U.S. total. Sales of organic crops in Iowa accounted for $29.6 million, livestock and poultry sales accounted for $6.3 million, and livestock and poultry products accounted for $24.8 million. Sales of value-added certified organic products totaled $378,851. Sales from all vegetables were $1.09 million, while organic fruit sales were $23,849 and sales from all berries were $30,777.