North Dakota’s Crop Production Diversity

What does North Dakota have that other states don’t?

Besides scenic Valley City on the Sheyenne River, we have a lot to offer the United States. North Dakota Agriculture recently came out with their yearly totals for what the state grows and how we measure up to the rest of the ‘States.

North Dakota uses 90% of its land for agricultural production. We knew that agriculture was big in our state, but 90% of the land is even more than a vast majority.

We need all that land to produce 86% of the US’s canola crop. On top of that, ND produces 85% of our nation’s flaxseed and we are number one in the honey-producing lineup.

Wow- North Dakota can really produce!

North Dakotan farmland creates the most sunflowers, dry beans, oats, spring wheat, durum wheat, and honey in the United States. We

Gardenia. are second and third in barley and sugarbeet production.

What ND doesn’t do so well in, comparably, is corn and soybean production. We ranked ninth in soybean production, and produced about half the corn of the leading states.

Why not stick to the ones that ND does the best with? Canola, sugarbeets, dry beans, barley, wheat, potatoes, sunflowers, lentils,

flaxseed, oats- and of course, cattle. There are about two cows for each person in North Dakota, and cattle are raised in every county of our state.

If that’s not incredible enough, numberwise, here’s another one: North Dakota has 26,100 farms. Each of those farms averages 1,492 acres, according to USDA NASS statistics. One acre is just about an entire football

field- 90.75% of one. An average North Dakota farm, then, is 1,354 football fields!

That doesn’t sound so impressive.

But think about it this way: The average farm in the United States is 444 acres. That’s 402 football fields- a really long way to run, but less than half of the average North Dakota farm size.

Turns out, not everything is bigger in Texas.

North Dakota is doing very, very well in the world of production, and that doesn’t project to change any time soon. Keeping our focus on agriculture keeps our children grounded and us down-to-earth, something that hearkens back to our state’s pioneer roots.

Next time you see a crop that isn’t corn or beans, celebrate North Dakota’s wonderful diversity in crop production. And don’t forget to wave to the cows- somewhere out there are two cows for each person.

Image from North Dakota wild flax field, (Lunum usitatissimum), is grown for its seed. North Dakota is a major producer of flax. Isn’t it incredible to live in a state where our crops are beautiful, too?

Cattle are being raised in every county of our state with Morton County being the largest raisin a total of 115,000 cows, most of them beef cows.