Kentucky’s Top 10 Agricultural Products

In partnership with: Kentucky Department of Agriculture

Kentucky ranks among the leading states in the nation for the production of a wide range of commodities, including tobacco, cattle and calves, hay, and broilers (chickens raised for meat). Learn about the top Kentucky agriculture products based on cash receipts below. Defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, cash receipts refer to the total amount of crops or livestock sold in a calendar year.

1. Soybeans

$1.4 billion

Soybeans are Kentucky’s leading agriculture product. The state’s 2023 soybean harvest encompassed 1.82 million acres, which produced more than 100 million bushels of the crop that year.

2. Broilers

$1.3 billion

The Bluegrass State ranks No. 9 in the nation for production of broilers (chickens raised for meat). In 2023, Kentucky raised more than 277 million broilers.

3. Cattle & Calves

$1.3 billion

As of Jan. 1, 2024, Kentucky had an inventory of 1.89 million cattle and calves, including 907,000 beef cattle. Kentucky is the largest beef cattle-producing state east of the Mississippi and ranks No. 8 in the nation for beef brood cow inventory.

See more: Feeding the Kentucky Cattle Industry

4. Equine and Other Animals

$1.2 billion

Equine sales account for about 98% of the cash receipts in this category. According to the most recent Census of Agriculture, Kentucky is home to an inventory of more than 111,000 horses and ponies spread across more than 13,000 farms.

5. Corn

$1.2 billion

In 2023, Kentucky farmers harvested 1.5 million acres of corn for grain and 80,000 acres of corn for silage, yielding more than 280 million bushels of corn for grain and 1.76 million tons of corn for silage that year.

See more: Corn and Soybeans Rank Among Kentucky’s Top Commodities

6. Hay

$360 million

Kentucky farmers harvested more than 2 million acres of hay in 2023, including 90,000 acres of alfalfa. The 2023 harvest yielded over 4.4 million tons of hay in total, including 270,000 tons of alfalfa. Kentucky is the nation’s ninth-leading hay producer.

7. Wheat

$248.7 million

In 2023, Kentucky farmers harvested 460,000 acres of winter wheat, yielding more than 40 million bushels of the crop. One bushel of wheat contains approximately 1 million individual kernels, and it yields 42 one-and-a-half-pound commercial loaves of white bread.

8. Chicken Eggs

$245.7 million

In 2023, Kentucky farms produced more than 1.4 billion eggs from an inventory of over 5.5 million laying hens.

9. Tobacco

$225 million

Kentucky’s 2023 tobacco harvest encompassed 36,800 acres of tobacco, yielding more than 85.6 million pounds of the crop. Kentucky ranks No. 2 in the nation for total tobacco production and No. 1 for the production of burley, dark fire, and dark air tobacco varieties.

10. Dairy Products & Milk

$196.3 million

Kentucky dairies produced about 915 million pounds of milk from a total inventory of 45,000 dairy cows in 2023, equivalent to more than 20,000 pounds of milk per cow.

See more: How Chaney’s Dairy Barn in Kentucky Is Elevating Agritourism