Missouri has been a consistent leader in agriculture for more than 200 years.

Missouri has fertile farm ground, abundant pasture land and vast hardwood timber. Agriculture has always been our number 1 industry and still is today contributing over $93 billion annually to the state’s economy. Nationwide, the state ranks #2 for family farms and #3 for cattle.

Missouri Agriculture supports hundreds of thousands of jobs. Farmland covers 66 percent of the state’s total land use with nearly 88,000 farms. We produce a large variety of crops including soybeans, corn, hay, rice, cattle, hogs, and dairy.

Our agriculture industry took off when railroads made it possible for farmers to reach markets further than a few miles by wagon.

The first railroad to connect the Mississippi river with the Missouri river was the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad through northern Missouri. The railroad was planned at a meeting in Mark Twain’s fathers Hannibal law office in 1847. Construction began in 1851 and the final spike was driven near Chillicothe on February 13, 1859.

It famously carried the first mail for the Pony Express in 1860. Former St. Joseph, Missouri postmaster William A. Davis organized the first experimental Railway Post Office car, which made its historic run on the rough bumpy tracks along northern Missouri on July 28, 1862. Sorting mail on the moving train was deemed a huge success and changed American mail transit forever.

The first bridge to span the Missouri River was the Hannibal Bridge in Kansas City, which opened on July 3, 1869. It was designed by renowned civil engineer Octave Chanute for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. It was built using wrought iron on limestone piers, it featured a swing-span section to let steamboats and river traffic pass safely. With the arrival of the Hannibal Bridge, trains could cross the river year-round, facilitating the expansion of railroads, livestock trade, and other industries. This caused an economic boom for Kansas City. Many pioneers heading west came to Kansas City so they could cross the river, but ended up staying and making Kansas City their permanent home. The 1865 population was about 4500. When the bridge was finished in 1869, Kansas City’s population was 32,000. By 1900, the population grew to 163,000.

By 1900, Missouri had 6,887 miles of railroad track connecting virtually every part of the state from more than 40 railroad companies. This provided farmers transportation to get their produce, livestock and grain to expanded markets. It also provided passenger service across the state and helped grow Missouri’s tourism industry that would become our second largest industry.

“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.” — Thomas Jefferson