An agriculture ETF is a fund that tracks farm commodities or farm-related companies. Price follows its basket, fundamentals depend on holdings, fees and taxes, and fit depends on whether you want diversification or stock-like growth. A futures fund like Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA) holds crop and livestock futures backed by cash, not land or shares. An equity fund like VanEck Agribusiness ETF (MOO) holds shares of seed, fertilizer, machinery and food companies.
Table of Contents
- What moves the price?
- What do you actually own?
- What do fees, taxes and roll costs take?
- Where does it fit in a portfolio?
What moves the price?
DBA tracks the DBIQ Diversified Agriculture Index Excess Return with exchange-traded futures. Its price follows the basket of futures, not one crop and not farmland value. The basket spreads risk across corn, soybeans, coffee, sugar, wheat, live cattle, lean hogs, cocoa and cotton.
Top weights recently included corn at 14.29%, soybeans at 13.73%, coffee at 13.60% and sugar at 13.25%. Price tracks net asset value closely. According to the Invesco filing summary via StockTitan, DBA reported NAV of $26.69 and market price of $26.68 on June 30, 2026, with $1,197,881,576 in assets and 43.2 million shares outstanding DBA filing summary.
What do you actually own?
With DBA, you own futures exposure collateralized by cash instruments. You do not own acres, grain in storage, or shares of farm companies. With MOO, you own stocks.
VanEck says the fund seeks to replicate the MVIS Global Agribusiness Index of companies with at least 50% of revenue from agrichemicals, seeds, fertilizer, machinery, livestock, aquaculture and farm-product trading VanEck MOO Q&A. That difference drives behavior. Futures react to harvests, weather, herds and contract rolls. Equities react to earnings, dividends and the broader stock market.
What do fees, taxes and roll costs take?
Equity fees differ by breadth. MOO charges about 0.53%-0.56% per year and holds names such as Deere, Bayer, Tyson Foods and Zoetis. IShares VEGI charges 0.39% and holds over 100 global producer stocks for wider equity exposure. Tax forms differ by structure.
Futures-based commodity ETFs set up as partnerships can issue Schedule K-1 forms for yearly futures gains even without a sale. Funds organized under the 1940 Act, such as Teucrium TILL and iShares COMT, use 1099 reporting and roll methods to reduce that burden. Futures rolls add a second drag. When an expiring contract is replaced with a costlier later contract, a condition called contango, fund returns can trail spot crop prices by roughly 4-6% per year.
Where does it fit in a portfolio?
Use futures exposure for diversification. DBA has low correlation with stocks, so it can smooth a stock-heavy mix when food and commodity prices rise separately. Use equity exposure for business growth and income.
MOO pays about a 2% dividend but moves more with stocks, so expect less diversification than DBA. Inflation-hedge interest remains practical. The USDA 2026 outlook reported via AllAgNews points to all-food prices up about 2.9%-3.1%, with beef up over 9% USDA outlook report.
- Choose DBA if the goal is direct commodity exposure with less stock linkage.
- Choose MOO or VEGI if the goal is agribusiness earnings, dividends and broader equity growth.
- Check tax handling before buying in a taxable account: K-1 versus 1099 matters at filing time.