Agriculture ETFs: The Full US and Canada Comparison

Reviewed August 2026 against USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) land-value data, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) farm-income forecasts, the Investment Company Institute’s ETF statistics, and the SEC’s Investor.gov fund guidance.

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Five agriculture ETFs trade in the United States, and only two trade in Canada. That’s the whole category: MOO, VEGI, DBA, FTAG and TILL in the US; COW and ZEAT on the TSX. Their expense ratios run from 0.39% to 0.93%, their combined US assets total roughly $2.4 billion, and none of them is a pure farmland fund — for that you own a REIT stock, not an ETF. The tables below cover every real ticker, cost and holding so you can compare them directly instead of reading a summary an AI Overview already gave you.

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Which Agriculture ETF Is Best for You?

There is no universal “best agriculture ETF” — the right pick depends on which of four things you’re optimizing for: cost, size and liquidity, direct commodity exposure, or Canadian-dollar access. Matched against fund data as of August 7, 2026 (VanEck, iShares, Invesco, First Trust and Teucrium fund pages, via stockanalysis.com):

• Lowest annual cost: iShares MSCI Global Agriculture Producers ETF (VEGI) — 0.39% expense ratio.
• Largest and most liquid: VanEck Agribusiness ETF (MOO) — $970.83 million in assets under management (AUM).
• Direct commodity-futures exposure (not equities): Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA) — $1.21 billion AUM, tracking 10 futures contracts.
• Highest current dividend yield: Teucrium Agricultural Strategy No K-1 ETF (TILL) — 4.48%, though this is a small, actively managed futures fund with $32.30 million AUM.
• TSX-listed, Canadian-dollar access: iShares Global Agriculture Index ETF (COW) — the largest Canada-domiciled option by assets.

None of these carries a low-triple-digit or single-digit expense ratio the way broad S&P 500 funds do — agriculture is a narrow sector, so expect to pay 0.39%–0.93% a year regardless of which fund you choose.

What Counts as an Agriculture ETF (and What Doesn’t)

“Agriculture ETF” and “farming ETF” get used interchangeably, but the funds trading under that label split into three genuinely different strategies, and a fourth category — pure farmland — doesn’t exist as an ETF at all in the US or Canada as of August 2026.

1. Broad Agribusiness Equity ETFs

These hold shares in seed, equipment, fertilizer and food-processing companies — not the crops themselves. MOO, VEGI and FTAG fall here. Their returns track equity markets and individual company earnings more than they track wheat or corn prices.

2. Commodity-Futures ETFs

DBA and TILL hold futures contracts on live cattle, corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and similar commodities rather than company stock. They move with crop and livestock prices directly, including contango and roll costs in the futures curve.

3. Farmland and Real-Asset Exposure — Without a Dedicated ETF

There is no exchange-traded fund in the US or Canada that holds farmland directly as its core strategy. Investors seeking that exposure buy individual farmland REIT stocks instead. Our companion guide covers those tickers directly: Top Farmland REIT Stocks & ETFs for Agriculture. For a deeper breakdown of US commodity-linked agriculture funds specifically, see Best Agriculture ETFs: US Agriculture Commodity ETFs.

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US-Listed Agriculture ETFs: The Full List

Every agriculture and farming ETF trading on a US exchange as of August 7, 2026 is in this table — there are no others to add. Figures are per stockanalysis.com fund pages for each ticker, same date.

MOO’s top five holdings as of August 7, 2026 are Corteva (9.06%), Bayer (8.68%), Deere & Company (8.13%), Nutrien (6.58%) and Zoetis (5.36%). VEGI is far more concentrated at the top: Deere alone is 27.03% of the fund, followed by Corteva (11.12%), Archer-Daniels-Midland (7.20%), Nutrien (6.30%) and CF Industries (3.58%). If you want direct crop and livestock price exposure instead of company shares, DBA and TILL hold futures contracts, not equities — read the fact sheet before assuming “agriculture ETF” means the same mechanics across funds.

Agriculture ETFs vs. Individual Agriculture Stocks

If you’re weighing agriculture ETFs against buying agriculture stocks directly, look at who the ETFs already concentrate in: Deere & Company (DE), Corteva (CTVA), Bayer (BAYN), Nutrien (NTR) and Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) each sit among the top five holdings of at least two of the five US-listed funds above, per each fund’s August 7, 2026 holdings data. Buying an ETF spreads your position across all five names plus dozens more at 0.39%–0.93% a year; buying the stocks individually costs you a brokerage commission per trade but skips the annual fee entirely and lets you overweight the company you actually believe in. Neither is automatically better — a $200 an acre-cycle in Deere’s tractor sales cycle hits VEGI harder than MOO, precisely because Deere is 27.03% of VEGI versus 8.13% of MOO.

Agriculture ETFs in Canada: COW, ZEAT and What’s Missing

Canada’s agriculture ETF shelf has exactly two TSX-listed funds, both far smaller than any of the mid-sized US options above.

There is no third option. Canadian investors who want commodity-futures exposure like DBA’s or TILL’s have to cross the border and buy the US-listed fund directly, converting CAD to USD to do it — Teucrium’s TILL, for instance, has no Canadian-dollar equivalent. Both COW and ZEAT are equity funds, not futures funds, so neither gives direct exposure to canola, wheat or fertilizer prices the way DBA does; they instead hold the seed, chemical and machinery companies that sell into those markets. Because MER and net-asset figures for TSX funds change with each fund-facts filing, check the live quote pages directly for the current numbers: COW on TMX Money and the equivalent ZEAT listing.

For a Canadian portfolio, that leaves two practical paths: hold COW (or ZEAT) for CAD-denominated, TSX-settled exposure with no currency conversion, or hold a US-listed fund like MOO or VEGI in a US-dollar account for lower cost and far larger scale — MOO’s $970.83 million AUM dwarfs both Canadian funds combined.

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Farmland, Real Assets and the Inflation-Hedge Case

The inflation-hedge argument for agriculture ETFs really rests on farmland, and farmland has been appreciating in the US every year since 2021 — but growth is slowing. USDA NASS’s Land Values 2026 Summary, published July 31, 2026, put the US average farm real estate value at $4,500 per acre, up $150 (3.4%) from 2025. Cropland alone rose 3.3% to $6,020 per acre, and pasture rose 4.2% to $2,000 per acre.

Since none of the seven agriculture ETFs discussed on this page hold farmland directly, that 3.4% annual land appreciation doesn’t flow into MOO, VEGI, DBA, FTAG, TILL, COW or ZEAT the way it would into a farmland REIT stock. NASS republishes this Land Values Summary every August, so check the USDA NASS Land Values report directly for the current per-acre figure rather than relying on this one. For the REIT-level exposure that actually tracks land values, see Top Farmland REIT Stocks & ETFs for Agriculture.

Farm Profitability: What Actually Moves These Funds

Agribusiness equity ETFs like MOO and VEGI ultimately track how profitable the farm sector is, since their holdings sell inputs to farmers and buy crops from them. USDA ERS’s farm income forecast, last updated May 7, 2026, put 2026 net farm income at $153.4 billion — a $1.2 billion (0.7%) decline from 2025 in nominal terms, or 2.6% after adjusting for inflation. Net cash farm income tells a different story: forecast at $158.5 billion for 2026, up $4.6 billion (3.0%) from 2025 in nominal terms.

That divergence matters for fund selection: net cash farm income (what farmers actually have on hand to spend) rising 3.0% while accrual net farm income falls 0.7% suggests farmers are managing inventory and receivables differently in 2026 than the income statement alone would suggest — a nuance that affects how much farmers spend on equipment (Deere, Corteva’s core customer base) versus how they’re pricing crops into DBA’s and TILL’s underlying futures contracts. Total cash receipts are projected to fall 3% in 2026 per the same ERS forecast, with crop receipts up 1% and animal product receipts down 6% — a split that hits livestock-linked and cash-crop-linked holdings differently within the same fund.

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How to Choose an Agriculture ETF: A Practical Checklist

The specific funds above will change AUM and returns every quarter; this checklist won’t. Run any agriculture or farming ETF — including ones launched after this page was last reviewed — through these eight questions before buying.

1. Is it equity or futures? Equity funds (MOO, VEGI, FTAG, COW, ZEAT) own company shares. Futures funds (DBA, TILL) own commodity contracts and carry roll-cost and contango risk that equity funds don’t.
2. How concentrated is the top holding? Pull the current top-10 list from the fund’s own site. VEGI’s 27.03% weighting in a single stock (Deere) as of August 7, 2026 means a Deere-specific problem hits VEGI far harder than it hits MOO’s 8.13% weighting in the same stock.
3. What’s the expense ratio, in dollars, not just percent? On $10,000, the gap between VEGI’s 0.39% and DBA’s 0.93% is $54 a year — use the calculator below with your own investment size.
4. What’s the AUM and average daily volume? FTAG’s $14.30 million AUM is a liquidity risk factor a $970 million fund like MOO doesn’t carry — check current volume on your brokerage before placing a market order.
5. Which currency and exchange does it settle on? COW and ZEAT settle in CAD on the TSX; the five US funds settle in USD. Currency conversion costs and withholding-tax treatment differ between the two.
6. Does the index include a commodity-price screen, a market-cap screen, or an active manager’s discretion? TILL is actively managed; the other six funds are passive index trackers.
7. What’s the tracking difference versus the stated benchmark? The SEC’s Investor.gov guidance notes that even index-based ETFs “may not perfectly track” their underlying index if the fund samples rather than fully replicates it — check the fund’s own factsheet for its stated tracking difference.
8. What are the tax mechanics of distributions? Per SEC Investor.gov, many ETFs use in-kind share exchanges rather than cash redemptions, which “typically have fewer capital gains distributions” than mutual funds — but futures-based funds like DBA and TILL can generate K-1 or 1099 tax forms with different treatment than equity ETFs. Confirm which applies before filing.

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For pairing ideas: a broad-exposure holding like MOO combined with a futures fund like DBA balances equity-market risk against direct commodity-price risk; a Canadian-dollar holder can pair COW with a US-listed fund like VEGI for lower cost once currency conversion is factored in. If you also manage physical farm operations, Farmonaut Fleet Management Tools optimize vehicle and equipment use on the operating side of that same trade.

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Calculate Your Fund’s Fee and Income Drag

Pick a fund (or enter your own numbers) to see what its expense ratio and dividend yield actually cost and pay over a holding period, using the exact figures from the table above.

Farmonaut: Satellite Data for Agriculture Investors

None of the fund figures above tell you what's happening on the ground at any specific farm — that's a separate data layer. Farmonaut combines satellite imagery, AI and blockchain to give agri-businesses, advisors and landowners field-level intelligence that fund holdings data can't provide:

• Real-time satellite monitoring: crop health, drought risk, soil moisture and farm activity, useful for assessing regional exposure behind any ETF's holdings.
• AI-driven advisory (JEEVN AI): yield and weather-cycle signals that can flag risk before it shows up in a quarterly earnings report.
• Carbon and environmental metrics: emissions and sustainability tracking for ESG-minded diligence.
• Blockchain traceability: supply-chain transparency for companies an agribusiness ETF might hold.
• Fleet and resource management: field logistics optimization for corporate landowners and farmland operators.

Farmonaut's web and mobile apps and developer APIs make this data accessible directly: Farmonaut API Developer Docs.

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Watch on YouTube: Canada Fertilizer Boom — Green Ammonia and AI Precision

Watch on YouTube: JEEVN AI — Smart Farming with Satellite Insights

FAQ: Agriculture ETFs, DTCR and Tax Treatment

1. What is an agriculture ETF?
   A fund holding either shares of agribusiness companies (seed, equipment, fertilizer, processing) or commodity futures contracts (grains, livestock). MOO, VEGI and FTAG are equity-based; DBA and TILL hold futures directly, per each fund's own strategy description.
2. What's the best agriculture ETF?
   It depends on the objective, not a single ranking: VEGI for lowest cost (0.39% expense ratio), MOO for size and liquidity ($970.83 million AUM), DBA for direct commodity exposure, or COW for TSX/CAD access. See the Quick Answer section above for the full breakdown, dated August 7, 2026.
3. Is DTCR stock an agriculture ETF?
   No. DTCR is the Global X Data Center & Digital Infrastructure ETF — a data-center REIT and digital-infrastructure fund with no agriculture holdings, priced near $28.21 with about $2.17 billion AUM as of August 7, 2026. If you meant an agriculture fund, use the comparison table under "US-Listed Agriculture ETFs" above.
4. Are there agriculture ETFs listed in Canada?
   Two: iShares Global Agriculture Index ETF (COW) and BMO Global Agriculture ETF (ZEAT), both on the TSX in Canadian dollars. Both hold company equities, not futures contracts.
5. Is there a pure farmland ETF?
   Not in the US or Canada as of August 2026. Farmland exposure comes from individual farmland REIT stocks rather than an exchange-traded fund — see Top Farmland REIT Stocks & ETFs for Agriculture.
6. Are agriculture ETFs a good inflation hedge?
   Futures-based funds like DBA track commodity prices directly, which move with inflation more closely than equity funds do. Equity funds like MOO and VEGI are one step removed — they benefit from higher crop prices only insofar as it improves their holding companies' margins.
7. What is tracking error, and does it matter here?
   Per the SEC's Investor.gov, an index fund "may not perfectly track its index" if it samples securities rather than fully replicating the benchmark — check each fund's factsheet for its stated tracking difference before assuming two funds on the same index perform identically.
8. How are agriculture ETF distributions taxed?
   Per SEC Investor.gov, equity ETFs that use in-kind redemptions typically generate fewer capital-gains distributions than mutual funds. Futures-based funds such as DBA and TILL, however, often issue K-1 forms reflecting 60/40 short-term/long-term gain treatment under IRS commodity-futures rules rather than standard 1099 dividend treatment — confirm which form your specific fund issues with a tax professional before filing.

Conclusion

Seven real tickers make up the entire US and Canadian agriculture ETF category as of August 2026: MOO, VEGI, DBA, FTAG and TILL in the US, COW and ZEAT in Canada. Expense ratios span 0.39%–0.93%, AUM spans $14.30 million to $1.21 billion, and none of them owns farmland directly. USDA's farm income and land-value data — refreshed annually by NASS each August and monthly by ERS — will move the equity funds; futures curves and crop prices will move DBA and TILL more directly. Check the fund pages and USDA releases linked throughout this page for whichever number has moved since August 2026, rather than treating any figure here as fixed.

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