USDA report confirms—Wiregrass remains peanut capital of Alabama

A new report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed what many people already know: the Wiregrass region loves their peanuts.

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service released its annual estimates for crop production across the state. The report included things like peanuts, cotton, soybean + corn.

Keep reading to find out more about the report + which counties lead the way for each crop.

Peanuts: Houston County

To no one’s surprise, Houston County topped the list for peanut production in the state by a wide margin. The county is home to Dothan, which is widely known as the Peanut Capital of the World and hosts the annual National Peanut Festival.

USDA’s report listed the top counties in the state based off of the 2023 production. In total, the state produced just over 480 million pounds of peanuts while harvesting 171,000 acres. The top five counties included:

• Houston—89,640,000 pounds
• Geneva—65,750,000 pounds
• Baldwin—55,960,000 pounds
• Henry—49,750,000 pounds
• Mobile—35,860,000 pounds

The state produced more than 70 million pounds less in 2023 than it did in 2022. Barbour, Covington and Mobile counties were the ones to report a growth in peanut production.

Cotton + Soybean: Limestone County

While the southern part of the state leads the way on peanut production, northern counties seem to be taking the lead on everything else, including cotton and soybean.

Leading the way in both categories is Limestone County which borders the state line with Tennessee. As a state, both crops saw less production than last year but Limestone saw substantial increases.

For cotton, Limestone saw more than a 30 percent increase from its 2022 production. The state finished 2023 producing 730,000 bales of cotton after harvesting 374,000 acres. The top five counties include:

• Limestone—60,200 bales
• Cherokee—54,600 bales
• Madison—49,700 bales
• Houston—47,300 bales
• Lauderdale—47,100 bales

Despite planting less of the crop, Limestone County also saw a jump in soybean production. All four counties bordering Tennessee are in the top five Alabama counties in soybean production for 2023 including:

• Limestone—2,329,000 bushels
• Madison—1,640,000 bushels
• Lawrence—1,536,000 bushels
• Jackson—1,141,000 bushels
• Lauderdale—1,107,000 bushels

As a whole, Alabama produced 14,835,000 bushels of soybean. According to the USDA, the state harvested 345,000 acres of the 350,000 acres planted.

Corn: Madison County

The USDA released its corn report in March and the crop saw a large increase in production from 2022 to 2023.

Last year, the state produced 52,480,000 bushels of corn, a 53.3 percent increase from what the USDA reported in 2022. Alabama harvested 320,000 acres of corn.

Just like cotton, it was the northern part of the state that saw the most production. The counties bordering Tennessee once again made up four of the top five spots, including:

• Madison—6,520,000 bushels
• Lawrence—5,054,000 bushels
• Limestone—4,794,000 bushels
• Jackson—3,860,000 bushels
• Lauderdale—3,330,000 bushels

Madison was also the only county in the state to yield at least 200 bushels per acre harvested, finishing at 201.2. The second highest was Barbour County at 186.9.

Make sure to follow The Bama Buzz on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn! And make sure to sign up for our newsletter too, we’ll bring more news like this right to your inbox.