How big is Idaho agriculture, and where does Idaho rank among the states?
Idaho had 22,400 farms working 11.5 million acres in 2025, an average of 513 acres each. The state leads the country in potatoes, growing 138.4 million hundredweight in 2025 on 314,500 harvested acres, about a third of the United States crop, and in barley at 54.9 million bushels, roughly 39 percent of the crop. It ranks second in sugarbeets and alfalfa hay, third in milk production at 18.3 billion pounds from 725,000 milk cows, fourth in dry onions, and fifth in wheat. Idaho's field crops were worth $3.37 billion in 2025 and its milk $3.83 billion. Water is the binding constraint on all of it: 3.18 million Idaho acres were irrigated in the 2023 Irrigation and Water Management Survey, fifth most of any state, and two thirds of the state's harvested cropland was irrigated at the 2022 Census of Agriculture. Every figure here is from USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, carries the year it describes, and the ranks are computed across all reporting states from the same series.
Reading Idaho agriculture figures: a figure without a date is not a fact
Agriculture numbers circulate in Idaho policy debate with no year attached, and a figure without one can be several revisions old or a forecast of a crop still in the field. This page is the current set, each figure carrying the year it describes and the date USDA published it, with Idaho's rank computed across every reporting state from the same series rather than repeated from someone else's summary.
All of it comes from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the USDA agency that runs the surveys and the Census of Agriculture. Anyone can reproduce these numbers in Quick Stats.
Where Idaho leads United States agriculture
| Commodity | Latest year | Idaho | Rank | Share of US |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potatoes | 2025 | 138,380,000 cwt | 1st of 13 reporting states | 33.5% |
| Potatoes, harvested | 2025 | 314,500 acres | 1st | 36.2% |
| Potatoes, value | 2025 | $1.08 billion | 1st of 14 | 23.4% |
| Barley | 2025 | 54,880,000 bushels | 1st of 24 | 39.2% |
| Sugarbeets | 2025 | 7,500,000 tons | 2nd of 11 | 23.4% |
| Alfalfa hay | 2025 | 3,567,000 tons | 2nd of 42 | 7.5% |
| Hops | 2025 | 11,637,200 lb | 2nd of 3 | 14.0% |
| Dry onions | 2025 | 9,520,000 cwt | 4th of 8 | 11.6% |
| Wheat | 2025 | 106,560,000 bushels | 5th of 36 | 7.0% |
| Dry edible beans | 2025 | 1,143,000 cwt | 6th of 7 | 4.9% |
| Field crops, value | 2025 | $3.37 billion | 15th of 50 | 2.0% |
Idaho's potato crop is a third of the national crop by weight and under a quarter of it by value, which works out to $7.82 a hundredweight against a national average of $11.19. Idaho's crop goes predominantly to processing and storage rather than to the fresh market, and the two channels price differently.
Idaho livestock and milk production
| Series | Latest year | Idaho | Rank | Share of US |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cattle and calves, January 1 | 2026 | 2,500,000 head | 11th of 50 | 2.9% |
| Milk cows, January 1 | 2026 | 725,000 head | 3rd of 32 reporting | 7.6% |
| Beef cows, January 1 | 2026 | 435,000 head | 22nd of 32 reporting | 1.6% |
| Sheep and lambs, January 1 | 2026 | 220,000 head | 6th of 33 reporting | 4.4% |
| Milk produced | 2025 | 18,258,000,000 lb | 3rd of 34 | 7.9% |
| Milk, value of production | 2025 | $3.83 billion | 4th of 34 | 7.8% |
The gap between third in milk cows and twenty-second in beef cows is the shape of Idaho's livestock sector in two rows. Of the 2.5 million head counted on January 1, 2026, 725,000 were milk cows and another 310,000 were milk replacement heifers, so the dairy side alone is about 41 percent of the state's cattle. Beef cows were 435,000 and cattle on feed 355,000.
NASS publishes some of these series for only the states where the sector is material, which is why the denominators differ. A rank is stated here against the number of states NASS actually reports, not against fifty.
Idaho irrigation and the water line
These are the irrigation series, and each carries the year it describes.
| Series | Year | Idaho | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Irrigated land | 2023 | 3,180,948 acres | 5th |
| Irrigated harvested cropland | 2023 | 2,848,808 acres | 5th |
| Farms with irrigated land | 2023 | 11,952 operations | 5th |
Only California, Nebraska, Arkansas and Texas irrigate more ground than Idaho, and the 2022 Census of Agriculture puts the dependence in sharper terms: 2.9 million of Idaho's 4.37 million acres of harvested cropland were irrigated, about two thirds of the total.
Because that ratio is two thirds, water administration reaches most of Idaho's harvested cropland. A curtailment order, a mitigation plan, or a change to the Water Appropriation Rules reaches two thirds of the cropland that produces the figures in the tables above.
Irrigated acreage has also been drifting down: 3.40 million acres in the 2017 census, 3.17 million in 2022, 3.18 million in the 2023 survey.
Idaho farms and farmland
| Series | Year | Idaho | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farms | 2025 | 22,400 | 34th |
| Land in farms | 2025 | 11,500,000 acres | 24th |
| Average farm size | 2025 | 513 acres | 14th |
Idaho has 1.2 percent of the country's farms on 1.3 percent of its farmland, and produces a third of its potatoes and 8 percent of its milk. The output share is about 28 times the farm-count share in potatoes and about 7 times it in milk.
How to read a USDA NASS figure on Idaho before you quote it
Three traps, all avoidable.
A crop year is published before it is finished. Quick Stats carries an in-progress crop under the plain annual label as well as under "August forecast", with the same value and the same load date. In August 2026 the 2026 barley row reads 52,890,000 bushels, and it is a forecast of a crop still standing. The finished 2025 number is 54,880,000. If a figure for the current calendar year appears before harvest, check whether a forecast row shares its publication date.
The reference period is part of the series. Cattle are counted on one day, January 1, and milk is summed over a year. "Idaho had 2.5 million cattle in 2026" means on January 1.
Census and survey are different programs. Farm counts and land in farms come from an annual survey; irrigation, cropland, and operator detail come from the Census of Agriculture every five years, and from the Irrigation and Water Management Survey the year after each census. The 2023 irrigation figures above are survey figures published in October 2024, not census figures.
What to watch in Idaho agriculture data
The January cattle inventory report and the annual crop production summary in January set most of these numbers for the year. Potato and hay estimates are revised through the winter.
The next Census of Agriculture covers 2027 and will restate irrigated acreage, which is the series that matters for water policy and the one that moves slowest.
Primary sources
- Quick Stats, the searchable database of NASS estimates — USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
- 2022 Census of Agriculture, Idaho state profile — USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
- 2023 Irrigation and Water Management Survey — USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
- NASS Idaho field office publications — USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
About the author
Patxi Larrocea-Phillips is the founder of LP Associates & Agriculture, LLC, an Idaho government affairs firm working agriculture, water, and rural community policy. He is a multi-generational Idaho rancher and a graduate of the University of Idaho College of Law.
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This article explains public law and public process for general information. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.