Single Crop or Multi-Crop: A Data First Assessment

by Caleb Howard

The PUREIntel team has hypothesized that there would be healthy mix (read: 50/50) of growers with multiple crops vs. single crop specialization. To determine this, we pulled together complete 2024 numbers. What we learned was a bit different from our expectations. First, we checked on crop groups anticipating the growers to specialize in one group and found that to be true. ~70% of California growers in 2024 had crops within the same crop group. Shown here:

Crop Groups

Growers with x number of Crop Groups Number of Growers
1                  13,933
2                    3,000
3                        865
4                        354
5                        182
6                          83
7                          52
8                          14
9                          18
10                             9
12                             1
13                             3
14                             1
15                             1
                 18,516

 

Now here is where the deviation from our hypothesis occurred; we checked out the individual crop distribution. We found that 65% of California growers in 2024 stick to a single crop. Shown here:

Crops

Growers with x number of Crops Number of Growers
1                     12,067
2                        3,150
3                        1,431
4                           761
5                           403
6                           234
7                           138
8                              81
9                              72
10                              45
11                              36
12                              21
13                              13
14                              15
15                              12
16                                8
17                                8
18                                5
19                                3
21                                2
22                                1
23                                2
27                                1
28                                1
29                                1
30                                2
32                                1
37                                1
44                                1
                    18,516

 

The total indicates that many growers are specializing in a single crop. Would it be beneficial to see what the total planted acres are for this distribution? Do you think there is value in targeting/marketing your chemistries to individual crops?

Caleb Howard is  Meister Media’s Digital and Data Operations Manager. For more information about this data or for more details about Meister’s PURE Intel+ and PURE Intel+ PCA products, contact him at 440-602-9144 or [email protected]

PURE Intel is a trademark of Meister Media Worldwide. 

About PURE Intel

Meister Media’s PURE Intel platform offers subscribers comprehensive insights into California’s specialty agriculture market by aggregating monthly crop protection product application data from approximately 20,000 California farms and providing that data through a user-friendly, web-based platform that enables subscribers to customize their data queries.