USDA farm income data published in September 2025 included state cash receipt estimates for the 2024 calendar year. In 2024, Iowa’s agricultural cash receipts totaled $37.6 billion. The main four agricultural commodities were corn ($11.06 billion), hogs ($9.02 billion), soybeans ($6.67 billion), and cattle & calves ($6.19 billion) (see Figure 1). Iowa’s 2024 corn, soybean, and hogs cash receipts fell 14.4%, 8.5%, and 3.4% from their estimates in 2023, respectively. Cash receipts for cattle & calves in 2024 increased 21.0% from the previous year.
Iowa Agricultural Exports
According to USDA-ERS, the State Exports, Cash Receipts (CR) estimates, and State Trade by Country of Origin and Destination (COD) estimates each provide alternative ways of reporting state international trade values by applying different methods and data. Because of this, the results are not comparable to each other. The most recent state trade data was published by USDA on September 25, 2025.
The CR method’s data is on a calendar year basis. This data does not include some processed goods such as distilled spirits, beer, and ethanol. This group of commodities account for about 4% of total recorded agricultural exports, on average.
Alternatively, for the COD dataset, the USDA-ERS collects data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Trade is recorded at the place where commodities are loaded or unloaded for/from shipment. For bulk commodities, in particular, these shipments are most likely recorded in states with shipping ports. Only the value and trading partners of the major five commodities exported during the most recent five fiscal years (FYs, Oct 1 to September 30) are reported on a quarterly basis.
Iowa Agricultural Exports: CR Method
The latest Iowa exports based on CR estimates correspond to the calendar year 2023. From the 2021 to 2023 calendar years, soybeans were the main commodity exported from Iowa, with the value of exports fluctuating between $4.8 billion in 2022 to $3.60 billion in 2023. The value of Iowa soybean exports declined 26.1% in 2023 year-over-year. In addition, among the other four of top five commodities exported by Iowa during these three calendar years were corn, pork, feeds (and other feed ingredients1) and soybean meal (Figure 2).
Iowa Agricultural Exports: COD Method
The most recent state export data based on the COD estimates included up to the first three quarters of 2025 FY. Figure 3 shows Iowa’s leading five agricultural commodities exported to the world during the first three quarters of the FYs 2023, 2024, and 2025. The top agricultural commodity exported by Iowa was pork (including pork products) followed by corn. In 2023, soybeans were among the main five commodities exported by Iowa, but because the published data is limited to the export value of each state’s top five commodities, soybean exports were not included in the Iowa 2024 and 2025 data. Other important commodities exported by Iowa include ethanol (non-beverage) and soybean meal. Iowa exports based on the five leading agricultural commodities during the first three quarters of 2025 were estimated at $2.02 billion, up 18% from the same period last year ($1.72 billion).
Note: The state export data shows significant differences between the two methods, particularly for bulk commodities. Iowa is a major producer of several agricultural bulk commodities such as corn and soybeans. The state export estimates by the CR-method assign larger export values of these commodities to Iowa than the COD method which
registers exports at the shipment location (port). However, state exports of some commodities such as ethanol (non-beverage) are included only in the data generated by the COD method. Iowa is the top producer of ethanol in the country and as such, the state may contribute to the U.S. total value of ethanol exports.