Row Crops & Grain Farming
Crop farming operations growing corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and other commodity grains and field crops.
- 4
- Verticals
Overview
Row Crops & Grain Farming covers the production of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and other field crops — the largest category of U.S. agricultural production, spread across hundreds of thousands of farms in the Corn Belt, Plains, and beyond. It is the foundation of the grain, feed, food, and biofuel value chains.
Demand is driven by food, feed, ethanol, and export markets, with profitability swinging on crop prices, input costs, and weather. It is highly fragmented (a vast base of family and commercial farms) yet increasingly capital- and technology-intensive, with precision agriculture, farmland consolidation, and farmland investment as key trends; production is tracked by the USDA, not the Economic Census.
Market snapshot
Crop production (NAICS 111) is covered by the USDA Census of Agriculture, not the Economic Census, so it is not sized here; U.S. crop cash receipts run on the order of ~$250B+ annually.
Business model & economics
Revenue model
Crop sales (food, feed, ethanol, and export)
Key economics
- Recurring revenue
- Low
- EBITDA margin
- Cyclical with crop prices and input costs
- Capex intensity
- High
annual, price- and weather-dependent harvests
Characteristics
- Largest category of U.S. agricultural production.
- Foundation of grain, feed, food, and biofuel chains.
- Precision ag, farmland consolidation, and investment trends.
M&A deal context
Who’s acquiring
- Farmland investors & operators
- Consolidating commercial farms
- Vertically-integrating agribusinesses
What’s driving deals
- Farmland consolidation and investment.
- Precision-agriculture adoption.
- Crop-price and input-cost cycles.
Verticals in this segment
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