Back in 1910, Montana had about 57,000 farms. Today, thanks to better machines and technology, the state farms more efficiently-even though there are fewer farms. In 2024, Montana had about 23,800 farms covering 57.4 million acres, with each farm averaging almost 2,412 acres (Source: USDA).

Technology & Growing More Food

• Modern tractors, computers, and harvesters help farmers plant, grow, and pick crops faster.
• These tools let one big farm produce way more food than many small farms did long ago.

Cropland in Montana

Farmers use thousands of acres for growing different types of crops. Here are some of the biggest ones in 2024:

• Wheat: 5.33 million acres planted; about 5.08 million acres harvested. That grew 173 million bushels worth over $1 billion.
• Hay & Haylage: 2.56 million acres, including 1.5 million acres of alfalfa hay-worth over $660 million.
• Lentils: 720,000 acres with 6.21 million hundredweight (cwt) produced (worth about $226 million).
• Barley: 910,000 acres, producing 36.7 million bushels ($217 million).
• Dry peas: 595,000 acres, yielding 8.29 million cwt ($110 million).
• Chickpeas: 222,000 acres (about 2 million cwt, valued at $67 million).
• Canola: 215,000 acres.
• Other crops: corn, safflower, flaxseed, oats, sugar beets, and alfalfa seed.

All together, that's around 10 million acres in just these major crops-and when you add others like apples, potatoes, lentils, peas, garlic, beans, grapes, squash, and mustard, the total cropland reaches roughly 18 million acres.

Why This Matters for Kids

• You're eating food from many of these plants-wheat becomes bread, lentils go into soup, and potatoes might be in your dinner.
• Even though there are fewer family farms now, the bigger machines and smart technology mean more food for everyone.

Crops

• Barley and Oats
• Berries
• Cherries
• Christmas Trees
• Corn
• Hay
• Mint
• Sugar Beets
• Sunflowers
• Wheat

Sources and More Reading:

• USDA Montana Statistics
• USDA Crop Reports