BROOKINGS COUNTY MARKET

Brookings County, South Dakota Farmers Market — Buy & Sell Local Crops Near You

🌽 Crop Market is a free online farmers market where neighbors in Aurora, Brookings and Volga buy and sell food they grew, baked or raised. Watch for local honey when it comes into season in South Dakota. Listing is free and you keep 100% of every local sale.

Farming in Brookings County by the Numbers

Brookings County has 801 farms on 374,488 acres (about 468 acres each). Together they sold $444.9 million of farm products in 2022, led by corn, dairy (milk) and cattle.

Orchards and vineyards here grow grapes, and local fields produce sweet corn, pumpkins, potatoes and cantaloupes. Beekeepers tend about 576 honey bee colonies.

27 farms in Brookings County already sell straight to the public, about $1.2 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 Brookings County

Livestock is part of daily life here: the 2022 farm census found 119,605 hogs, 78,535 head of cattle and 4,841 sheep in Brookings County.

About 1,452 people run or help run farms in Brookings County, with an average age of 60. 31% of them are women. 103 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.

Where Brookings County stands out: it ranks #1 of 42 SD counties for selling food straight to the public and #3 of 66 SD counties for number of farms.