BOONE COUNTY MARKET

Boone County, Missouri Farmers Market — Buy & Sell Local Crops Near You

🌽 Crop Market is a free online farmers market where neighbors in Columbia, Ashland and Hartsburg buy and sell food they grew, baked or raised. Watch for local sweet corn when it comes into season in Missouri. Listing is free and you keep 100% of every local sale.

Farming in Boone County by the Numbers

Boone County has 1,120 farms on 196,763 acres (about 176 acres each). Together they sold $137.1 million of farm products in 2022, led by soybeans, corn and nursery & greenhouse plants.

Orchards and vineyards here grow grapes, pecans and apples, and local fields produce pumpkins, watermelons, tomatoes and squash. Beekeepers tend about 820 honey bee colonies.

114 farms in Boone County already sell straight to the public, about $2.1 million 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 Boone County

Out in the pastures and barnyards, Boone County counts 16,663 head of cattle, 10,544 egg-laying hens and 2,098 goats. Grass-fed beef sold by the quarter or half is a common way ranchers sell direct.

About 2,005 people run or help run farms in Boone County, with an average age of 58. 38% of them are women. 157 are under 35 - the next generation of local growers. 12 farms earn money from agritourism - things like u-pick fields, pumpkin patches, farm stays and corn mazes.

Where Boone County stands out: it ranks #2 of 109 MO counties for honey bee colonies and #3 of 109 MO counties for goats.