Reviewed September 2026 against USDA NASS Georgia (nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Georgia) and USDA NASS Quick Stats Ag Overview for Georgia.

Try it: Estimated gross farm value: — →

Georgia’s top commodity by cash receipts is broilers (meat chickens): the state’s broiler industry generated $41.5 billion in cash receipts in 2024, more than every other Georgia commodity combined, according to USDA NASS. Behind broilers, the order by most recent published value runs peanuts, cotton, eggs, beef cattle, pecans, greenhouse/nursery, corn, kaolin, and granite — a mix of row crops, livestock, and minerals that USDA and Georgia Farm Bureau data track separately, which is why “top 10” lists compiled from different years don’t always agree.

This page lays out that ranking with the actual USDA and Georgia Farm Bureau numbers behind each entry, the year each figure covers, and where to pull an updated number when USDA releases its next report. It also covers two related industries — kaolin clay and granite dimension stone — that put Georgia among the top mineral-producing states in the country, alongside the row crops and livestock that usually come to mind first.

Table of Contents

• Georgia’s Top 10 Commodities, Ranked
• 1. Broilers (Meat Chickens)
• 2. Peanuts
• 3. Cotton
• 4. Eggs
• 5. Beef Cattle
• 6. Pecans
• 7. Greenhouse & Nursery
• 8. Corn
• 9. Kaolin (Industrial Clay)
• 10. Granite & Dimension Stone
• Farm Gate Value Calculator
• Mineral Exploration in Georgia: What Satellite Data Adds
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Sources & How to Refresh These Numbers
• Try it: Estimated gross farm value: —

Georgia’s Top 10 Commodities, Ranked

There is no single USDA table that ranks “Georgia’s top 10 commodities” in one row — cash-receipt totals for livestock and poultry are published annually, but the state overview figures for individual crops like pecans, corn, and nursery stock currently top out at 2022, the most recent year in USDA’s consolidated Quick Stats overview. The table below combines the newest year available for each commodity, with the year flagged so you know exactly how current each line is.

Note the gap in row 5: USDA’s final 2024 cotton report (via Southeast AgNET) gives production and yield but not a dollar cash-receipt figure at the same detail level as poultry and eggs — cotton’s value swings with lint prices that this article does not have a sourced figure for, so it’s left blank rather than estimated. The kaolin and granite figures are carried over industry estimates rather than a single annual USDA cash-receipt line, because USDA’s crop and livestock overview does not cover industrial minerals — for those, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division and USGS mineral commodity summaries are the better annual source.

1. Broilers (Meat Chickens): $41.5 Billion in 2024

Georgia raised 1.3 billion broilers in 2024 and led all U.S. states in broiler production, according to USDA NASS figures reported by Meatingplace. The broiler industry’s cash receipts reached $41.5 billion in 2024 per USDA — a figure that dwarfs every other line on this list and is the single reason “poultry” so often gets named as Georgia’s top commodity rather than any crop. The state’s broiler belt runs through north and central Georgia, where integrated companies contract with growers who raise birds to market weight in roughly six to seven weeks, supplying processing plants that ship dressed and further-processed chicken nationally and for export.

USDA NASS Georgia (USDA NASS Georgia) releases updated annual broiler statistics each January covering the prior calendar year — so a January 2027 release will carry final 2026 numbers. If you’re reading this more than a year after September 2026, pull the current figure from that page or from Quick Stats rather than citing the 2024 number above as if it were still current.

2. Peanuts: $774 Million, Over Half the U.S. Crop

Georgia’s 2024 peanut crop was valued at $774 million, according to USDA NASS’s 2024 Georgia Agriculture Facts publication. Growers harvested 845,000 acres at an average yield of 3,800 lbs per acre, producing 3.21 billion pounds statewide — figures confirmed by both USDA NASS’s Southern Region annual crop production summary and Georgia Farm Bureau’s reporting on 2024 gains. Production is concentrated in the sandy soils of southwest Georgia, around Tifton, Albany, and Bainbridge, where peanuts are typically rotated with cotton or corn for soil health and disease management.

USDA NASS’s Southern Regional Office publishes monthly crop production reports with updated peanut forecasts from August through December each harvest year, at nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Regional_Office/Southern/ — that’s the place to check for the current season’s acreage and yield before the final annual number is confirmed the following spring.

3. Cotton: 1.93 Million Bales in 2024

Georgia’s final 2024 cotton report from USDA NASS, via Southeast AgNET, put lint production at 1.93 million bales from 1.1 million planted acres, at an average yield of 881 lbs of lint per acre. That yield is a meaningful data point on its own: Georgia growers plant cotton across south Georgia counties including Dooly, Tift, and Colquitt, where the crop is ginned locally before moving into textile and cottonseed-oil supply chains. Cottonseed byproducts also feed regional livestock feed mills, which is part of why cotton acreage and peanut acreage move together — the same farms often rotate between the two.

USDA does not publish a single cotton cash-receipt figure in the same Quick Stats overview line as eggs or beef cattle, since cotton’s value depends on lint price at time of sale, which this brief did not source a verified 2024 figure for. For a current cotton price, check USDA AMS Market News’ cotton reports directly rather than relying on a production-volume estimate.

4. Eggs: $960.2 Million

Georgia’s egg production generated $960.2 million in cash receipts, per USDA NASS Quick Stats’ state agriculture overview for Georgia — the most recent year in that consolidated dataset is 2022. Eggs run alongside broilers in Georgia’s integrated poultry economy: many of the same counties in north and central Georgia that raise broilers also host layer operations, sharing feed suppliers, hatcheries, and processing infrastructure. Because Quick Stats’ full state-overview tables lag the current year by roughly two years, a 2023 or 2024 update to this figure may already exist in USDA’s system by the time you’re reading this — check the source link below for the newest table.

5. Beef Cattle: $730 Million

Beef cattle cash receipts in Georgia reached $730 million in the same 2022 USDA NASS Quick Stats overview. Cattle operations are spread more broadly across the state than the crop-specific commodities on this list, often run alongside row-crop or timber operations as a secondary enterprise on the same land. As with eggs, this figure is due for a refresh once USDA publishes its next full state agriculture overview — historically released 12 to 18 months after the harvest year closes.

6. Pecans: 132 Million Pounds, #1 in the U.S.

Georgia produced 132 million pounds of pecans in 2022, more than any other state, valued at $400.8 million according to USDA NASS data cited by Georgia Farm Bureau. Production is centered in central and southwest Georgia, where efficient irrigation and pest-resistant hybrid varieties have kept the state at the top of national pecan output for years. A large share of the crop moves into snack and baking markets, with meaningful export volume into Asian and European markets that has helped support pecan prices even as U.S. per-capita tree-nut consumption shifts year to year.

7. Greenhouse & Nursery: $611.2 Million

Georgia’s greenhouse and nursery sector was valued at $611.2 million in 2022, per USDA NASS Quick Stats — larger than corn, and larger than the state’s pecan crop. This category covers ornamental plants, sod, and container nursery stock supplying landscaping and retail garden markets across the Southeast, an industry that tends to track regional construction and housing activity rather than commodity export prices the way row crops do.

8. Corn: $522.7 Million

Corn production in Georgia was valued at $522.7 million in 2022, according to the same USDA NASS Quick Stats state overview. Corn functions partly as a feed-grain input for Georgia’s much larger broiler and egg industries, so its acreage decisions are shaped as much by feed demand and input costs as by corn’s own market price. Georgia Farm Bureau’s 2024 reporting noted soybean acreage gains alongside peanuts, but this brief did not locate a verified current-year soybean production value for Georgia — that figure should be pulled directly from USDA NASS Quick Stats when needed.

9. Kaolin: Georgia’s Industrial Clay

Kaolin, a fine white industrial clay used in paper coating, ceramics, paint, rubber, and plastics manufacturing, is mined commercially in a belt running through Middle Georgia around Sandersville and Jeffersonville. Georgia is consistently cited as the leading U.S. kaolin-producing state, with industry estimates putting annual production value above $800 million — though unlike the USDA figures above, this is not a single annually-republished government cash-receipt line, and a precise current-year figure should be sourced from USGS mineral commodity summaries or the Georgia EPD’s mining division rather than treated as fixed.

Kaolin mining districts use land reclamation, water recycling, and dust-control practices as standard operating requirements under Georgia’s surface mining permitting rules, since kaolin pits are typically shallow open-pit operations that need to be restored to usable land after extraction.

10. Granite & Dimension Stone

Elberton, Georgia calls itself the “Granite Capital of the World,” and the district anchors the state’s dimension-stone industry, supplying granite for monuments, countertops, and construction. Industry estimates put annual value above $500 million, though — as with kaolin — this figure is not a standardized annual USDA line item; a current number should come from USGS’s granite dimension-stone reporting or Georgia’s own mining statistics rather than this estimate.

Byproduct gravel and crushed stone from Georgia quarries also feed road-base and concrete markets across the Southeast, and access to Georgia’s rail and interstate network is a real cost advantage for stone producers shipping into neighboring states.

Farm Gate Value Calculator

Use your own acreage and yield assumptions against Georgia’s 2024 statewide peanut and cotton averages to estimate a farm’s gross commodity value before input costs.

Mineral Exploration in Georgia: What Satellite Data Adds

Kaolin and granite are Georgia's two best-established mineral commodities, but both are mature, already-mapped districts. Where satellite-based exploration tools add value is earlier in the pipeline — screening less-studied ground for alteration signatures, structural targets, or extensions of known mineral belts before committing to ground surveys or drilling. Satellite-based mineral detection uses multispectral and hyperspectral imagery to flag prospectivity zones, faults, and alteration halos across a target area without physical access, which is particularly useful for evaluating large or remote acreage before deciding where to spend on field crews.

• ✔ Detects precious, base, industrial, and rare-earth mineral signatures from satellite imagery
• 📊 Maps faults, alteration halos, and prospectivity zones ahead of field deployment
• ✔ Reduces reliance on early-stage ground surveys and speculative drilling
• ✔ Supports ESG-oriented exploration by minimizing land disturbance during screening

For a deeper technical view of how this is delivered, Farmonaut's satellite-driven 3D mineral prospectivity mapping deliverable integrates geospatial layers into a model usable for investment screening and operational targeting.

Get a custom mineral assessment quote, or reach out via contact us for exploration partnership questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources & How to Refresh These Numbers

• Broiler, peanut, and cotton production data: USDA NASS Georgia — updated annually, broilers each January
• Cash-receipt values for eggs, cattle, pecans, nursery, and corn: USDA NASS Quick Stats Ag Overview for Georgia — full state overview released 12–18 months after each harvest year
• Commodity rankings and national-leadership context: Georgia Farm Bureau
• Seasonal cotton, peanut, and corn forecasts: USDA NASS Southern Regional Office monthly crop production reports (nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Regional_Office/Southern/)
• University extension outlooks: UGA CAES Field Report (fieldreport.caes.uga.edu)
• Kaolin and granite production values: not covered by USDA's agricultural statistics — check USGS mineral commodity summaries or Georgia EPD's mining program for current industrial-minerals figures

For satellite-based exploration support once you've identified a target area, Farmonaut's mineral detection platform or a direct contact us inquiry can scope next steps.