A soybean is a small hard bean inside a fuzzy pod, and it is the biggest oilseed crop in the country — USDA calls soybeans “the dominant oilseed in the United States, accounting for about 90 percent of U.S. oilseed production.” Whole counties turn green with them in summer. Which state harvested the most bushels in 2025? Tap the states most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→4 in order
Midwest means corn country. Iowa! 🐾
2Answer
The real order is…
Illinois — 639,375,000 bushels, about 15% of the country's 4,261,858,000. And second place is right behind it: Iowa, at 595,630,000. Illinois is only 1.07× Iowa — a photo finish. Now swap the crop. In the very same 2025 season, USDA's corn table reads the other way round: Iowa first, Illinois second. Two states, two crowns, and which one you wear depends on which plant you ask about. Here is the part that makes it stranger: those are often the same fields. When USDA explains why soybeans spread across the Midwest, one of the reasons on its list is “a greater number of 50–50 corn-soybean rotations” — corn one year, soybeans the next, on the same ground.
📚 BackgroundUSDA's Economic Research Service says soybeans are “the dominant oilseed in the United States, accounting for about 90 percent of U.S. oilseed production,” and that the country is “the world's second largest soybean producer, after Brazil.” It is also a new giant: “Large-scale production of soybeans did not begin in the United States until the 20th century, but since then, area planted to soybeans has expanded rapidly.” And when ERS lists what drove that expansion, one item explains why this quiz and the corn quiz keep pointing at the same two states: “a greater number of 50–50 corn-soybean rotations.” A 50–50 rotation means one field and two crops, taking turns year by year.(USDA Economic Research Service, “Oil Crops Sector at a Glance”)
Note: a bushel is a measure of volume — a bushel of soybeans weighs about 60 lb. These are USDA's 2025 production estimates from its annual crop survey, which is a different thing from the Census of Agriculture that counts every farm once every five years. USDA NASS. USDA publishes a soybean production estimate for 29 states; the other 21 states are not in the table at all. Every printed number here is larger than everything USDA leaves out of the table added together, so this order is the national order.
USDA NASS Quick Stats: SOYBEANS - PRODUCTION, MEASURED IN BU, 2025, by state (2026-08-23) — Published estimates only (the committed raw file holds the API response verbatim). USDA publishes a soybean production estimate for 29 states; the other 21 states are not in the table at all. Every printed number here is larger than everything USDA leaves out of the table added together, so this order is the national order — a check this site re-runs on every build.
↳ In Quick Stats, pick SOYBEANS / SOYBEANS - PRODUCTION, MEASURED IN BU, Survey, year 2025, and compare states.