By Bonnie Coblentz
Despite some sharp decreases in row crop agriculture, cattle and poultry had a good year, bringing Mississippi’s 2025 estimated value of ag production to $9.51 billion.
Poultry continues three decades as the state’s top agricultural commodity, posting an anticipated year-end value of $3.73 billion and continuing its upward trend.
Forestry is in second place with a 2025 estimated value of $1.47 billion. Row crops declined 9% overall, with corn seeing a huge increase but cotton, peanuts, rice and soybeans facing significant declines in value.
The poultry industry got a bump in value as eggs rose to an estimated $351 million. Broilers account for the bulk of the poultry industry’s value at $3.38 billion.
Josh Maples, agricultural economist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said poultry’s overall slight increase in value is a result of an increase in the pounds of broilers produced.
“Prices were down slightly, but the increase in pounds sold still led to a larger value of production,” Josh Maples said. “On the egg side, there was a jump in value of production driven by both increased production and stronger prices.”
Producers continue to face high input costs that challenge production value, and highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, continues to be a threat. Strict biosecurity measures prevented all but one case of HPAI in the state in 2025.
Eric McConnell, associate professor of forest business in the MSU Department of Forestry and Forest and Wildlife Research Center, said forestry’s estimated 2025 value dipped 1%.
“We experienced a sizable increase in the small pine sawtimber -- or chip-n-saw -- harvest at the expense of larger sized pine timber,” McConnell said. “Hardwood sawtimber saw a 14% increase in total value on a 10% increase in harvest for the year, but hardwood products overall comprised only 16% of the total timber harvest.”
Source : msstate.edu