Midwest Agriculture: Top Crops and Farm Sales by State

Midwest agriculture is led by corn and soybeans: the 12 Midwest states grew about 87% of US corn and 86% of US soybeans in the 2025 crop year, according to USDA’s Crop Production 2025 Summary (our sums of the state tables). Iowa and Illinois alone made 30% of the corn. The region is also home to Iowa’s hogs, Wisconsin’s cheese and Illinois pumpkins.

This guide shows what the Midwest produces, state by state, with dated USDA numbers. It also covers the money the region earns, the risks it faces (trade, storms, nutrient runoff) and the farming practices that respond to them. A calculator at the end lets you test corn and soybean returns with your own numbers.

Midwest agriculture at a glance

The US Census Bureau counts 12 states in its Midwest region: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Some USDA programmes use a narrower group of eight (all of these except Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota). The USDA Midwest Climate Hub, for example, covers eight states. We use the 12-state group for the numbers below and say so each time.

Farm sales are the sum of the 12 state totals in the USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture state profiles (US$254.4 billion) against the national total of US$543.1 billion. Corn and soybean shares are our sums of the state production tables. Sales include crops and livestock.

How to read Midwest farm numbers

Three details change the meaning of a figure. First, planted and harvested area differ: corn planted for all purposes includes silage, while “for grain” counts only the part harvested as grain. Second, NASS crop tables are survey-based estimates that are revised, while the Census of Agriculture is a count taken every five years. Third, a “share of the US” depends on which states you add up. We name the group each time.

What crops are grown in the Midwest?

Corn and soybeans cover most of the cropland. The USDA Midwest Climate Hub reported that the two crops grew on 75% of the arable land of its eight-state area in the 2012 Census of Agriculture, with about 54 million acres of corn and 44 million acres of soybeans, according to its regional vulnerability assessment. The same document says the rest of the land grows a wide variety of other crops, including fruit and vegetables.

The table shows the 2025 crop by state. Iowa grew the most corn and Illinois the most soybeans of the 12 states.

Source: USDA NASS, Crop Production 2025 Summary, January 2026. Corn is for grain. The US record corn crop of 17.0 billion bushels was 14% above 2024, with a record average yield of 186.5 bushels per acre.

Why the crop changes from year to year

Weather moves the yield, and the yield moves the total. Minnesota’s corn yield was 174 bushels per acre in 2024 and 201 in 2025. Kansas grew 748 million bushels in 2024 and 943 million in 2025. Iowa’s yield was 211 in 2024 and 210 in 2025. A farm’s own fields can differ a lot from the state average, so local records matter more than any state figure.

Soybeans and wheat

Soybean yields in 2025 ranged from 34.5 bushels per acre in North Dakota to 65.5 in Nebraska among the 12 states. Iowa averaged 63.5, Illinois 62.5 and Minnesota 52.5 (USDA NASS, January 2026). The US average was a record 53.0 bushels per acre. US soybean production was 4.26 billion bushels, 3% lower than in 2024, because harvested area was 7% smaller.

Wheat is a Plains story inside the region. In 2025, Kansas made 347 million bushels and North Dakota 334 million, together more than a third of the US crop of 1.98 billion bushels. Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois each made between 60 and 76 million. Iowa does not appear in the NASS wheat table. The 11 Midwest states that do appear made about 1.09 billion bushels, 55% of the US total (our sums).

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Corn for grain, 2024 vs 2025

Production in million bushels, the eight highest Midwest states in 2025

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Corn yield in four states

Bushels per acre, 2023 to 2025

Fruit, vegetables and pumpkins

The Midwest is not only grain. The USDA Midwest Climate Hub lists apples, blueberries, tart and sweet cherries, cranberries, grapes, peaches and other fruit among the crops grown in its eight-state area. Michigan’s 2012 tart cherry crop failed completely after an early bloom and a late frost, the same Climate Hub document records.

Pumpkins are one measured example. Illinois had 5.27 million hundredweight of utilized pumpkin production in 2025, about 36% of the US total of 14.47 million, according to USDA’s Vegetables 2025 Summary. These numbers cover fresh-market and processing pumpkins together. Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin also appear in the same table.

Livestock and dairy in the Midwest

Iowa holds more hogs than any other state. NASS counted 24.7 million head on 1 September 2026, against 74.3 million in the whole US, so about one hog in three. Minnesota was second with 9.30 million and North Carolina third with 7.60 million, as set out in NASS’s Quarterly Hogs and Pigs release. US inventory was down 2% from a year earlier.

Wisconsin leads in cheese. It made 24.6% of the 14.8 billion pounds of US cheese in 2025, with 28.4% of Italian varieties and 18.2% of American-type cheese, according to the NASS Dairy Products 2025 Summary. In butter, the same report names California as the leading state, with 28.4% of the 2.39 billion pounds.

Some Midwest farms keep both crops and animals. On these farms manure can feed the crops, crop residues can feed the animals, and a bad year in one enterprise can be cushioned by the other.

▶ Six benefits of mixing crops and animals on one farm. · 2:55

What Midwest farms earn

The 2022 Census of Agriculture put Iowa’s farm sales at US$43.9 billion, second among the 50 states, in its Iowa state profile. Sales grew 52% from the 2017 Census. The chart ranks the top eight Midwest states by sales. The mix differs by state: crops were 84% of sales in Illinois and 87% in North Dakota, while livestock, poultry and products were 65% in Kansas, 62% in Wisconsin and 52% in Nebraska.

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Farm sales by state

Market value of agricultural products sold, US$ billion, 2022, the eight highest Midwest states

Illinois, in turn, is the subject of our own look at Illinois harvest challenges and commodity prices.

Risks: trade, storms and nutrient runoff

Trade

Export markets matter to Midwest crops. US soybean exports to China fell from 26.8 million tonnes in 2024 to 7.2 million in 2025, a 73% drop, after China stopped buying in retaliation for US tariffs (it bought none in September 2025); purchases resumed in October 2025 after a trade truce, according to EconoFact’s July 2026 fact check of USDA data. Check current tariff and price news before you plan sales. The 2025 soybean crop was 4.26 billion bushels (USDA NASS, January 2026), so a change in one export market affects farm prices across several states.

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US soybean exports to China

Million metric tons, calendar years

Storms

The derecho of 10 August 2020 damaged millions of acres of corn and soybeans across central Iowa. NASA combined MODIS, Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 images from before and after the storm to map the damaged fields, and published the result as the 2020 Iowa Derecho visualization. Satellite pictures like this show where crops were flattened, but not the cost; that comes from field checks and insurance adjusters.

Nutrient runoff

Nitrogen and phosphorus that leave farm fields travel down the Mississippi River to the Gulf. Scientists measured the 2026 Gulf hypoxic zone at about 1,332 square miles, the second smallest in 40 years of measurement, according to Illinois Extension’s summary of the NOAA announcement of 10 August 2026. The page adds that a tropical storm mixed the water just before the survey cruise, so the zone measured smaller than expected and the cruise did not capture its full extent. It also notes that Illinois is one of 12 states with a nutrient strategy under the EPA Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan. Fertilizer plans therefore matter for the water as well as the budget; the 17 essential plant nutrients guide explains what crops take up.

Sustainable farming practices in the Midwest

The main practices are crop rotation, cover crops, reduced tillage, buffer strips and nutrient planning. SARE, the USDA-funded sustainable agriculture programme, says in its cover crop guide that cover crops are grown to slow erosion, improve soil health, retain water, smother weeds and help control pests, but that cover crops can pay for themselves in the first year or may take a few years to give a net positive return.

Cover crops are spreading, though more slowly than before: up 50% between the 2012 and 2017 Censuses, then 17% to 2022. The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 18.0 million acres in the US, 17% more than in 2017. Iowa had the second largest area at 1.28 million acres (Texas had 1.55 million), and North Dakota had the second largest increase, as the University of Illinois farmdoc daily analysis shows. The farmdoc paper adds that a federal crop insurance subsidy for cover crops (the Pandemic Cover Crop Program) probably raised the 2022 count.

Whether a practice pays depends on the farm: soil, rotation, equipment and local prices. Talk to your extension office or a certified crop adviser, and read the product label and local rules before any fertilizer or pesticide use.

A short planning checklist

• Write down yield by field for three or more seasons, so you can see which fields vary most.
• Test soil before you set fertilizer rates, and place nitrogen close to when the crop needs it. Check the product label and local rules.
• Ask your extension office which cover crop species and seeding dates suit your county.
• Keep strips of permanent vegetation along ditches and streams where water leaves the field.
• Compare crop insurance and loan terms with an adviser before you change your rotation.

None of these steps is specific to one state. The right choice for a farm in southern Illinois will differ from one in northern Minnesota, so use local trial results where you can.

▶ Seven simple ways to protect soil and water, from cover crops on. · 4:34

Calculator: corn and soybean returns on your farm

Corn and soybeans are the region’s two big crops. The calculator below compares them with your own yields, prices and costs. Its example numbers are not forecasts.

Try the numbers for your own farm below.

Using satellites on a Midwest farm

Satellite images show how vegetation changes through the season. The Sentinel-2 mission images the land in 13 bands, four of them at 10 m detail, and a field that looks different from its neighbours can then be checked on foot. Farmonaut Satellite + AI Farm Monitoring System is one tool that turns these images into field maps on web, Android and iOS; it shows vegetation change, not the cause, so scouting still decides the action.

Related pages on our site: product traceability, fleet management, carbon footprint tracking, weather API documentation, satellite data API, farm admin app, crop loan and insurance.

▶ Six plain steps to start precision farming, including satellite field monitoring. · 4:18

FAQ

What crops are grown in the Midwest?

Mainly corn and soybeans, which the Midwest Climate Hub says covered 75% of the arable land in its eight-state area in the 2012 Census. Fruit (apples, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, grapes), vegetables, pumpkins and wheat are grown too, as the Climate Hub and USDA tables show.

What does the Midwest produce?

Corn, soybeans, hogs and cheese lead the lists. In 2025 the 12 Midwest states made about 87% of US corn and 86% of US soybeans, Iowa kept 24.7 million hogs in September 2026, and Wisconsin made 24.6% of US cheese.

Which states are in the Midwest?

The Census Bureau lists Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The USDA Midwest Climate Hub uses a narrower eight, without Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Which Midwest state grows the most corn?

Iowa, with 2,772 million bushels in 2025, followed by Illinois with 2,354 million and Nebraska with 2,027 million (USDA NASS, January 2026).

What are the main risks for Midwest farmers?

Export demand (soybean exports to China fell 73% in 2025), severe weather such as the 2020 Iowa derecho, drought and flood years that move yields, and nutrient runoff that affects the Gulf of Mexico.

How we checked the numbers

State production figures come from USDA NASS’s Crop Production 2025 Summary. Farm sales come from the 2022 Census of Agriculture state profiles and the national total in volume 1. Shares for the 12 states are our sums and are labelled. Hog, cheese and pumpkin numbers come from NASS releases, each dated in the text. Trade, storm and water facts come from the sources linked beside them. Each source is listed at the end of the article.