Hay is by far the most widely cultivated crop in Wyoming, leading the state in both planted acreage and production value. After hay, the roster is rounded out by alfalfa (often counted within the broader hay category but grown specifically as a premium forage legume), barley, corn, winter wheat, sugar beets, and dry edible beans. The mix reflects the realities of a semi-arid, high-elevation state where most agriculture is built around feeding livestock rather than growing food directly for people, though a few cash crops manage to thrive in the right pockets of soil and water.
Why the Crop List Looks the Way It Does
Wyoming sits at high elevation, receives limited annual rainfall, and contends with temperature extremes and frequent drought. Those conditions narrow the range of crops that can reliably produce a harvest. Most of the state’s farmland is not irrigated, and dryland fields depend on whatever moisture falls during a short growing season. That is why so much acreage goes to forage and feed crops: they tolerate the climate better than most alternatives, and Wyoming’s enormous cattle and sheep operations need an immense amount of feed.
The semi-arid weather, including low precipitation and wide temperature swings, limits crop productivity across the board. Drought-tolerant and cold-hardy varieties dominate planting decisions. Irrigation, where available, opens the door to higher-value crops like sugar beets, but irrigated acreage is a fraction of the total farmland.
Hay and Alfalfa
Hay is the cornerstone of Wyoming agriculture. It occupies more acreage than any other crop and generates the most production value. That includes various grass hays as well as mixed-grass cuttings used to carry cattle and sheep through Wyoming’s long, harsh winters. Ranchers either grow their own hay or buy it from neighboring operations, and the entire agricultural economy revolves around having enough of it stockpiled before snow arrives.
Alfalfa deserves separate mention even though it falls under the hay umbrella. It is the preferred forage legume across the state because of its high protein content and superior feed quality compared with grass hay. Dairy and beef operations both value alfalfa, and it commands a premium in the regional market. Alfalfa also fixes nitrogen in the soil, making it a useful rotation crop. Most alfalfa in Wyoming is grown under irrigation, since the plant needs more consistent moisture than dryland conditions provide. Fields in the Bighorn Basin, the Wind River area, and parts of southeastern Wyoming produce much of the state’s alfalfa output.
Barley
Barley is one of the most important grain crops in Wyoming. Most of it is grown for animal feed, either as whole grain or processed into feed rations for cattle. But a portion of the state’s barley acreage serves a different market entirely: malting barley destined for the brewing industry.
Wyoming is one of several western states where major brewers contract directly with growers for malting-quality barley. Coors, for instance, has historically contracted with around 900 growers across Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming for roughly 160,000 acres of malting barley. That kind of vertical integration means some Wyoming barley growers have a guaranteed buyer if their grain meets the strict quality standards that malting requires, including specific protein levels, kernel size, and germination rates. Meeting those standards is not easy in a variable climate, and loads that fall short of malting grade get diverted to the feed market at a lower price.
Barley thrives at Wyoming’s elevation and handles cool nights better than corn does. It also matures relatively quickly, which suits the state’s compressed growing season. These traits make it a natural fit, and it has been grown here for well over a century.
Corn
Corn grown in Wyoming serves the livestock sector almost exclusively. Some is harvested as grain for feed, but a substantial share is chopped as corn silage, the whole plant fermented and stored to feed cattle through fall and winter. Silage provides a high-energy feed source that pairs well with hay and alfalfa in beef cow diets.
Researchers at the University of Wyoming have studied high-sugar corn varieties as a fall and winter grazing resource for beef cattle. Even though the nutritional quality of high-sugar corn forage declines as the grazing season progresses, it still provides a sufficient nutritional base to support body-weight gain in pregnant beef cows. That matters for Wyoming ranchers who need affordable ways to keep cows in good condition through the months before calving, when feed costs are highest.
Corn acreage in Wyoming is modest compared with Midwest states, and most of it is irrigated. The growing season is simply too short and too cool in much of the state for corn to reach full maturity on dryland fields. Where irrigation water is available, particularly along river valleys in the eastern part of the state, corn production is more feasible.
Winter Wheat
Wheat grown in Wyoming is predominantly winter wheat, planted in the fall and harvested the following summer. The University of Wyoming’s Agricultural Experiment Station runs variety trials across several counties, including dryland winter wheat in Laramie County, irrigated winter wheat in Laramie County, dryland plantings in Goshen and Platte counties, and dryland hard red spring wheat in Sheridan County. Those trials help growers figure out which varieties perform best under local conditions.
Winter wheat is valued because it can take advantage of fall and spring moisture, going dormant under snow cover during the coldest months and resuming growth as temperatures rise. That lifecycle meshes well with Wyoming’s climate. The grain is processed into flour for the broader food industry, making it one of the relatively few Wyoming crops that ends up in products for direct human consumption rather than in a feed bunk.
Hard red winter wheat and hard red spring wheat are the main classes grown. Hard red varieties produce flour with strong gluten content, suited for bread baking. Spring wheat, planted in Sheridan County and a few other northern areas, fills a niche where fall planting is too risky because of early severe cold or where growers want to rotate into a spring crop after a winter fallow period.
Sugar Beets
Sugar beets stand out as one of Wyoming’s major cash crops and one of the few grown purely for commercial processing rather than livestock feed. The crop requires irrigation and relatively deep, well-drained soil, which limits it to specific areas. The Bighorn Basin and parts of the North Platte River valley have historically been the heart of Wyoming’s sugar beet country.
Sugar beet farming is capital-intensive. The crop demands precise water management, heavy fertilization, and careful pest control. Harvest involves specialized equipment to pull the roots from the ground in the fall before hard freezes set in. Once harvested, the beets go to processing facilities where the sucrose is extracted and refined into granulated sugar. The industry has deep roots in Wyoming and across the intermountain West, dating back to early twentieth-century efforts to establish domestic sugar production.
For the growers who can manage the input costs, sugar beets offer returns that hay and barley simply cannot match on a per-acre basis. That economic incentive keeps the crop in rotation despite the challenges of growing it in a semi-arid environment where every drop of irrigation water has competing demands.
Dry Edible Beans
Wyoming produces dry edible beans, primarily pinto and navy varieties, for the commercial food market. Bean acreage is small relative to hay or barley, but the crop occupies a meaningful niche in the state’s agricultural output. Dry beans do reasonably well under irrigation in southeastern Wyoming and along river valleys where soils are suitable.
Pinto beans, the mottled brown-and-beige beans familiar from refried beans and chili, are the dominant type. Navy beans, smaller and white, are the classic baked-bean variety. Both are warm-season crops that need a frost-free window long enough for the pods to mature and dry down in the field before harvest. That window can be tight in Wyoming, and an early fall freeze can damage a crop that is not quite ready.
Dry beans add diversity to rotations that might otherwise cycle endlessly between small grains and forage. As legumes, they fix atmospheric nitrogen, improving soil fertility for whatever follows them. From a market standpoint, dry beans are sold into commodity channels that supply food processors, grocery distributors, and export markets. The per-acre revenue can be attractive in good years, though the crop carries more production risk than a dryland wheat field.
How Livestock Shapes the Entire Crop Picture
A striking feature of Wyoming’s crop profile is how thoroughly it is organized around animal agriculture. Hay, alfalfa, feed barley, corn silage, and even some of the grain corn all go to supporting the state’s cattle and sheep herds. That integration between crops and livestock is not incidental; it is the economic logic that drives most planting decisions.
Wyoming has far more rangeland than cropland, and the ranching sector dwarfs the crop sector in total economic output. Crop farming exists in large part to fill the gaps that rangeland alone cannot cover, particularly during winter when cattle cannot graze open pasture. The result is a crop mix that would look strange to someone from Iowa or Kansas, where corn and soybeans dominate and most grain is sold into commodity markets. In Wyoming, much of what grows on cropland never leaves the county. It goes from the field to the feedlot or the hay barn a few miles away.
High-sugar corn varieties illustrate this integration well. Rather than harvesting the grain, some ranchers let pregnant beef cows graze standing corn through fall and into early winter, using the whole plant as forage. Research has shown that even as the nutritional quality of that forage declines over the season, it still supports adequate weight gain in the cows. That kind of creative use of crop fields as extended grazing resources is characteristic of Wyoming agriculture, where flexibility and efficiency with limited resources matter more than maximizing yield of any single commodity.
Climate Challenges and Why Diversification Is Difficult
Wyoming’s semi-arid conditions, including low annual precipitation, extreme temperatures, and frequent drought, constrain what can be grown and make crop diversification a genuine challenge. Most of the state receives fewer than about 15 inches of rain per year, and much of that falls as snow. The frost-free season ranges from barely 60 days at high elevations to around 130 days in the warmest valleys, which rules out many crops that need long, warm summers.
Wind is another factor that rarely makes the list of official climate statistics but looms large for anyone farming in Wyoming. Persistent, strong winds increase evapotranspiration, drying out soil and crops faster than rainfall can replenish moisture. Young seedlings are vulnerable to wind damage, and topsoil erosion on dryland fields is a constant concern. These conditions steer growers toward hardy, proven crops rather than experimental ones.
Water rights add a layer of complexity. Irrigation water comes from rivers and reservoirs governed by a priority-based allocation system. In drought years, junior water-rights holders can be cut off, which means a farmer who planted a high-value, water-dependent crop like sugar beets may not get the water to finish the season. That risk discourages expansion of irrigated crop acreage even when markets might reward it.
Emerging and Alternative Crops
Researchers are looking for crops that can handle Wyoming’s tough conditions while giving growers something beyond the traditional hay-barley-wheat rotation. One crop getting attention is the mungbean, a warm-season legume that is drought-tolerant and could offer a competitive advantage among the limited warm-season legume options in the region. Mungbeans are widely consumed in Asian cuisines as whole beans, sprouted, or ground into flour, and growing global demand for plant-based protein creates a potential market that Wyoming growers have not traditionally tapped.
Whether mungbeans can move from research plots to commercial acreage remains an open question. The crop needs warm temperatures during its growing period, and Wyoming’s short summers may not provide a reliable enough window in all areas. But as a concept, mungbeans represent the kind of thinking that land-grant university researchers are pursuing: crops that tolerate drought, add nitrogen to the soil, and open new revenue streams beyond livestock feed.
Other niche crops pop up around the state in small quantities. Some growers experiment with sunflowers, safflower, or specialty small grains like oats and millet. A handful of operations in sheltered microclimates grow vegetables, fruit, or herbs for local farmers’ markets. But none of these come close to the acreage or economic weight of the main crops listed above. Wyoming’s agriculture is defined by what works reliably in a harsh environment, and the margin for error is thin enough that most growers stick with what they know.
Seed Potatoes and Other Niche Outputs
Wyoming has a long history of producing certified seed potatoes, taking advantage of its high elevation and relative isolation from the plant diseases that plague potato-growing regions at lower elevations. Seed potatoes are not grown for eating directly; they are the disease-free starter tubers shipped to commercial potato farms in other states, where they are planted to produce the table potatoes and processing potatoes consumers actually buy. Wyoming’s cold winters and dry air help keep viral and bacterial diseases in check, which is exactly what seed certification programs require.
Seed potato acreage is small, but the crop punches above its weight economically because certified seed commands a significant premium over commodity potatoes. The state’s role in this supply chain is an example of how geography that limits most types of farming can be an asset for a very specific product.
Similarly, some Wyoming growers produce certified seed for grasses, alfalfa, and small grains. The same isolation and clean growing conditions that benefit seed potatoes apply to other seed crops. These operations are invisible to most consumers but play an outsized role in supplying the planting stock that sustains agriculture in neighboring states and beyond.