SHELBY COUNTY MARKET

Shelby County, Iowa Farmers Market — Buy & Sell Local Crops Near You

🌽 Crop Market is a free online farmers market where neighbors in Earling, Elk Horn and Panama buy and sell food they grew, baked or raised. Watch for local sweet corn when it comes into season in Iowa. Posting an ad is free and sellers keep every dollar.

Farming in Shelby County by the Numbers

Shelby County has 865 farms on 339,793 acres (about 393 acres each). Together they sold $518.8 million of farm products in 2022, led by corn, hogs and soybeans.

Orchards and vineyards here grow pecans, and local fields produce asparagus and tomatoes. Beekeepers tend about 30 honey bee colonies.

16 farms in Shelby County already sell straight to the public, about $162,000 a year in direct sales. Crop Market gives them, and every backyard grower, a free way to reach more neighbors.

Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2022 Census of Agriculture.

Farm Life in Shelby County

Shelby County farms and homesteads keep 200,835 hogs, 41,088 head of cattle and 1,288 egg-laying hens.

About 1,528 people run or help run farms in Shelby County, with an average age of 57. 31% of them are women. 148 are under 35 - the next generation of local growers. 3 farms earn money from agritourism - things like u-pick fields, pumpkin patches, farm stays and corn mazes.