According to the Deparment of Agriculture, Tennesseeans hold their own among the nations farmers. 

• Over 40 percent of Tennessee's land area is in farmland, with cropland accounting for more than 60 percent of farmland.
• Tennessee has more than 14 million acres of farm and non-farm forest lands which produces an income of around $370 million in timber sales annually.
• There are 79,000 farms in Tennessee averaging 131 acres in size and ranging from small ten-acre tobacco and livestock farms in East Tennessee to large row crop farms of 5,000 acres or more in West Tennessee.
• Gross income at the farm level totals more than $3.41 billion each year for Tennessee farmers. Agriculture's impact on the state's economy is estimated at $44.2 billion annually, providing more than 300,000 jobs.
• Cattle and calves are the largest generator of farm income in Tennessee, totaling more than $480 million in 2006 or 18.8 percent of total farm revenue.
• Tennessee's top valued crops in 2006 include cotton, $335.1 million; soybeans, $251.5 million; corn, $152.3 million; tobacco, $94.1 million; and, hay, $47.7 million.
• Others crops include tomatoes, $49.9 million and wheat, $44.6.
• Poultry is one of the fastest growing segments of Tennessee's agricultural economy with a 142 percent increase in broiler production within the last ten years.
• Tennessee is second in the nation in the total number of equine and meat goat inventories.
• Tennessee is a national leader in the development and use of "no-till" farming, a soil conserving practice where the ground is not plowed before planting seed.
• In 2005, farmers used soil conservation practices on 84.1 percent of Tennessee's over 2 million acres of crop land compared to only 15 percent just a decade ago.
• There are more than 21,000 students enrolled in high school agriculture education programs in Tennessee, preparing for careers in farming, agricultural marketing, communications, education, sales and other services.
• Tennessee is the only state with a breed of horse, the Tennessee Walking Horse, as a namesake.
• Tennessee leads the nation in the production of hardwood flooring and is one of the nation's leading exporters of hardwood lumber.
• Warren County is known as the Nursery Capital of the World.
• The University of Tennessee was the first southern land grant institution designated in 1867 for the purpose of fostering agricultural research and education.
• Tennessee has the largest 4-H Club membership in the nation with more than 186,000 members.
• The Bureau of Agriculture, as the Tennessee Department of Agriculture was then known, was the first state agency formed by Governor Andrew Johnson in 1854, eight years before USDA.
• Tennessee was the first state to locate its agriculture department on a working farm, Ellington Agricultural Center, located on 200 acres 10 miles south of downtown Nashville.
• Tennessee was the first state to establish an Agricultural Hall of Fame -- enacted by the legislature in 1937 and housed at the Tennessee Agricultural Museum in Nashville.
• D. M. Clements was the first vocational agricultural teacher in the nation with the first high school vocational agriculture program in Paris, Tennessee - helping to launch the FFA (Future Farmers of America) youth organization.
• Nearly two million people, or about 2 percent of the population, farm or ranch in the United States, however, more than 15 percent are employed in farm-related jobs including processing, marketing and sales.
• In the 1960s, one farmer supplied 25.8 persons in the U.S and abroad. Today, one farmer supplies food for 145 people. 
• Farmers are producing meat lower in fat and cholesterol, resulting in retail cuts which are 15 percent leaner today.
• Today, farmers utilize satellite technology for "precision farming" which boosts crop yields and reduces waste by accurately applying seed, fertilizer and crop protectors to local soil conditions.
• Farming makes for a large capital investment - farmers pay anywhere from $97,000 for an average 160 horse-power tractor to $170,000 for a four-wheel drive model. • In the 1930's, a farmer could harvest an average of 100 bushels of corn by hand in a nine-hour day. Today's combines can harvest 900 bushels of corn per hour or 100 bushels of corn in less than seven minutes.
• The efficiency of U.S. farmers benefits consumers. Americans spend less than 10 percent of their income on food compared with 17 percent in Japan, 27 percent in South Africa and 53 percent in India.
• It takes the average American only 34 days to earn enough disposable income to pay for his or her yearly food supply.