5 spins ·
1 farm.
Each spin deals a handful of commodities. Predict which one NC ranks best in, and draft it. Add the five national rankings — the lowest total wins.
Your farm · Round 1 of 52 skips left
Low score wins
Your five NC rankings are added together. Smaller rank numbers make a better farm.
Complete all five courses to build your farm card.
Where does NC
actually rank?
Search the wall. Gold leads the nation, green means top five. Select a tile to see which state ranks first, where North Carolina lands, and why.
The identity of
NC agriculture.
North Carolina’s agricultural identity is shaped by three very different regions. Climate, soils and terrain help explain why different crops and livestock industries developed in different parts of the state.
Coastal Plain
Generally sandy to sandy-loam soils. NC State identifies the Coastal Plain and Sandhills as the state’s major row- and vegetable-crop-producing region.
Piedmont
Rolling terrain with generally clayey to clay-loam soils supports a mix of cropping and livestock systems across central North Carolina.
Mountains
Higher elevations bring cooler conditions. Pasture and livestock remain important, while apples, Fraser firs and trout are distinctive mountain products.
Regional summary: NC State Extension ↗. For this simplified three-region guide, the Sandhills are grouped with the Coastal Plain.
MountainsPiedmontCoastal PlainLit up
Sources: USDA NASS North Carolina Agricultural Statistics county estimates and the 2022 Census of Agriculture county profiles; NC Dept. of Agriculture county cash-receipts data; NC State Extension county publications; regions per NCpedia. Individual facts (Metrolina Greenhouses, Duplin Winery, Mount Olive Pickle Co.) from those organizations.
Rankings without
the asterisk.
Hidden isn’t zero.
USDA marks protected figures “not disclosed.” They are excluded from rank math—never counted as zero.
Real numbers only.
Every displayed national rank comes directly from published USDA data. Commodities North Carolina is not nationally ranked in are labeled “NR” and never assigned a rank. In the draft game only, NR picks take a 50-point penalty.
Year + basis, labeled.
Production and sales-value figures come from different years and reporting bases, so sorting by sales value is a broad comparison, not a matched annual series. Each commodity’s basis and year stay attached to it.
SOURCES · USDA NASS 2024 NORTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS RANK TABLE · USDA 2022 CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE · NC STATE EXTENSION FOR SELECT FRUIT CROPS · RANKS AS OF 2024
Mostly barns,
not fields.
Three-quarters of North Carolina’s farm sales are animals. Poultry and eggs alone are nearly half of everything the state sells.
Livestock & poultry — 75%
Crops — 25%
Share of North Carolina’s $18.7 billion in farm sales · 2022 Census of Agriculture
Livestock & poultryCrops
Everybody
knows…
True or false? Make your call, then see what USDA says. Not all of them are myths.