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Which state harvests the most buckwheat?

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Guess

Buckwheat has wheat in its name and ends up as flour, so it sounds like a cousin of the stuff in bread. It is not one. USDA's plant guide files it under the “Buckwheat family (Polygonaceae)” and calls it a “warm-season, broadleaf annual” with “heart-shaped leaves, and clusters of small white flowers” — nothing like the grasses that give us wheat, corn and rice. The name came from the seed, which “looks like a small beechnut”: boc (beech) plus whoet (wheat). It is also in a hurry — flowering “within 3 to 6 weeks” and finished “within 11 to 12 weeks.” Which state harvested buckwheat from the most acres? Tap the states most-to-least.

Tapping assigns 1→4 in order

It has WHEAT in the name. Kansas! 🐾

Answer

The real order is…
    North Dakota — 20,542 acres, out of 40,665 acres for the whole country. About half of America's buckwheat ground sitting in one state, and 2.65× the next state, Washington. Now stop measuring the land and weigh the harvest instead, and the race almost vanishes: in the same census North Dakota brought in 361,242 bushels and Washington 322,584 — nearly level, off well under half as many acres. USDA's plant guide lists planting dates state by state, and Washington's line is the odd one out: “mid-July in central Washington (under irrigation).” Same crop, two completely different ways of growing it. And one more thing about the champion: the state on top of this not-wheat is the same state on top of USDA's wheat table — and its honey table too.
    📚 Background The name is a mistake that stuck. USDA's plant guide puts buckwheat in the “Buckwheat family (Polygonaceae)” and calls it a “warm-season, broadleaf annual” with “heart-shaped leaves, and clusters of small white flowers” — nothing like the grasses that give us wheat, corn and rice. It got its name from its seed: “The plant's three-sided, angular seed looks like a small beechnut, therefore it was named buckwheat from the Anglo Saxon words boc (beech) and whoet (wheat).” It is also in a hurry: buckwheat “grows in the shortest time period of all cover crops,” flowering “within 3 to 6 weeks” and “completely maturing within 11 to 12 weeks” — and it feeds bees while it does it: “About one acre of buckwheat can provide enough forage for a hive of honey bees, producing about 150 pounds of honey in one season.” (USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Plant Guide: Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench), Pullman Plant Materials Center) (opens in a new tab)
    🔍 Explore more: 🥞『The wheat that is not a wheat』→
    It has WHEAT in the name. Kansas! 🐾

    Compare

    Buckwheat acres harvested (2022 Census of Agriculture)

    🇺🇸 United States (national)40,665 acres
    North Dakota #1 20,542 acres
    Most: North Dakota (20,542 acres); smallest printed number: Maryland (12 acres).

    Note: acres harvested in 2022, from USDA's Census of Agriculture — a count taken once every five years, not a yearly estimate. Buckwheat is also sown as a fast cover crop and then mown or turned back into the soil; that ground is never harvested, so it is not in this table. USDA NASS. USDA printed a buckwheat figure for 16 states. Twelve more — Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Virginia and Wyoming — are withheld because printing a number for them would give away information about individual farms, and the remaining 22 states are not in the table at all. Everything the twelve withheld states could hold together is smaller than each of the top six printed figures, so first through sixth place here are national positions. Further down the list the numbers get small, and a withheld state could sit among them, so read the tail as the order among the states with a printed number.

    Fast, white flowers, and not a wheat 🐾

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    📋 See the ranking table (top 16)
    Buckwheat acres harvested (2022 Census of Agriculture)
    Rank State Value Share of U.S. total
    #1 North Dakota 20,542 acres 50.5%
    #2 Washington 7,738 acres 19%
    #3 Minnesota 4,328 acres 10.6%
    #4 New York 3,450 acres 8.5%
    #5 South Dakota 1,265 acres 3.1%
    #6 Nebraska 1,165 acres 2.9%
    #7 Pennsylvania 481 acres 1.2%
    #8 Michigan 261 acres 0.6%
    #9 Oregon 249 acres 0.6%
    #10 Ohio 98 acres 0.2%
    #11 Maine 82 acres 0.2%
    #12 Iowa 71 acres 0.2%
    #13 Georgia 60 acres 0.1%
    #14 Wisconsin 51 acres 0.1%
    #15 New Jersey 21 acres 0.1%
    #16 Maryland 12 acres 0%
    🇺🇸 USA (total) 40,665 acres 100%

    USDA printed a buckwheat figure for 16 states. Twelve more — Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Virginia and Wyoming — are withheld because printing a number for them would give away information about individual farms, and the remaining 22 states are not in the table at all. Everything the twelve withheld states could hold together is smaller than each of the top six printed figures, so first through sixth place here are national positions. Further down the list the numbers get small, and a withheld state could sit among them, so read the tail as the order among the states with a printed number.

    Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (2022)

    Sources

    Data as of: 2022
    USDA NASS Quick Stats: BUCKWHEAT - ACRES HARVESTED, 2022 Census of Agriculture, by state (opens in a new tab) (2026-08-26) — Published values only (the committed raw file holds the API response verbatim). USDA prints a buckwheat figure for 16 states; 12 more are withheld because publishing a number for them would give away information about individual farms, and the remaining 22 states are not in the table at all. Everything the withheld states hold together (the national figure minus the printed ones) is smaller than each of the top six printed numbers, so first through sixth place here are national positions — a check this site re-runs on every build.
    ↳ In Quick Stats, pick BUCKWHEAT / BUCKWHEAT - ACRES HARVESTED, Census year 2022, Total domain, and compare states.