Texas Agriculture Packs a Punch
Did You Know? - Texas is the second-largest agricultural state in the United States, accounting for about 7 percent of the total U.S. agricultural income.
- Agriculture has an economic impact of about $100 billion on the Texas economy.
- Agriculture is the second-largest resource-based industry in Texas, producing about 9 percent of the state's gross product.
- The Texas agricultural industry employs one out of every seven working Texans.
- Thirty-two percent of agricultural producers were women in 2007; the number of women who were principal operators increased 29 percent from 2002 to more than 35,000.
- Texas is the fifth-largest wine-producing state with more than 160 wineries and 280 commercial vineyards, producing more than 2.4 million gallons of wine. The Texas Hill Country Viticultural Area is the second-largest Viticultural Area in the United States, covering 15,000 square miles. The Texas wine industry contributes more than $1.35 billion a year to the state's economy and supports about 8,000 jobs for Texans. For more wine facts, visit www.gotexanwine.org/.
- Texas is the third-largest exporter of agricultural commodities. Texas' top agricultural exports are live animals and red meat; cotton and cottonseed; hides and skins; wheat and products; and feeds and fodder.
- Almost 80 percent of the total land area in Texas is in some type of agricultural production.
- Texas leads the nation in the number of registered American Quarter Horses, American Paint Horses, Appaloosa horses and American Miniature Horses.
- Sales of cattle and calves account for almost half (about 40 percent) of all agricultural sales in Texas. About 150,000 farms and ranches in Texas have cattle, more than any other state.
- Texas leads the nation in cattle and calves, sheep, goats and horses, as well as the production of cotton, hay, wool and mohair. Texas is one of the world's leading producers of mohair, producing enough to knit more than 75 million sweaters.
- In 2007, milk production totaled 890 million gallons - enough to fill the Houston Astrodome seven-and-a-half times. Milk production generates almost $1.5 billion into the Texas economy.
- The state's top crops include vegetables, citrus, corn, wheat, peanuts, pecans, grain sorghum, hay and rice. Producers in the Texas Panhandle harvest more grain sorghum than all but one other state.
- Texas leads the nation in the production of farm-raised shrimp, with more than three-fourths of the U.S. total. Commercial aquaculture production in Texas includes oysters, shrimp, crawfish, catfish, red drum, hybrid striped bass, tilapia, rainbow trout and alligators.
- Texas farmers grow more than 60 different commercial fruit and vegetable crops.
- The annual economic impact of the Texas forestry industry is about $31 billion.
- Texas ranks sixth in U.S. rice production.
- Almost 1.5 million head of hogs are marketed in Texas each year.
- Texas producers shear about 600,000 head of sheep each year.
- Texas produces about 7 percent of the world's cotton. Texas traditionally produces enough cotton to make almost 1.7 billion pairs of denim jeans.
- Nursery and greenhouse production adds about $1.5 billion to the Texas agricultural economy.
- Texas produces enough peanuts each year to make more than 7 billion peanut butter sandwiches.
- Texas produces enough wheat to make more than 6 billion loaves of bread.
- Texas farmers harvest enough corn for more than 12 billion pounds of corn flakes.
- Texas is one of the top seven states in poultry and egg production.
- Texas growers raise enough watermelons to outline the state's borders more than four times.
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