Illinois has 27 million acres of farmland.
Just to put that into perspective, the entire state is just 37,064,960 acres. That means 73% of Illinois is agriculture.
Of that 27 million, 24 million acres is tillable, 824,000 acres is pasture for livestock, and 1.4 million acres is national forest, primarily Shawnee National Forest located in the south portion of the state.
Those 27 million acres of rich farmland are comprised of 79,000 farms, 96% of which are Illinois family owned and operated.
Nationwide agricultural ranking for Illinois agriculture
#1 soybean production
#1 pumpkin production
#2 corn production
#3 farmers markets
#3 ethanol production
#4 pork production
#4 bio-diesel production
