STODDARD COUNTY MARKET

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

🌽 Crop Market is a free online farmers market where neighbors in Advance, Bell City and Dexter buy and sell food they grew, baked or raised. Fruit, vegetables, cottage foods, plants, seeds and farm gear are all welcome. It's free to post, there's no cut taken, and local farm food carries no sales tax.

Farming in Stoddard County by the Numbers

Stoddard County has 637 farms on 417,349 acres (about 655 acres each). Together they sold $369.5 million of farm products in 2022, led by soybeans, cotton and corn.

Orchards and vineyards here grow apples, peaches and plums, and local fields produce sweet corn and tomatoes. Beekeepers tend about 33 honey bee colonies.

16 farms in Stoddard County already sell straight to the public, about $29,000 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 Stoddard County

Livestock is part of daily life here: the 2022 farm census found 7,773 head of cattle, 590 horses and ponies and 568 sheep in Stoddard County. Grass-fed beef sold by the quarter or half is a common way ranchers sell direct.

About 1,093 people run or help run farms in Stoddard County, with an average age of 58. 34% of them are women. 95 are under 35 - the next generation of local growers. 4 farms earn money from agritourism - things like u-pick fields, pumpkin patches, farm stays and corn mazes.

Where Stoddard County stands out: it ranks #5 of 114 MO counties for total farm sales.