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Sustainable agricultural systems are fundamental industries to a large proportion of the world economies, with considerable differences in agricultural systems between countries. As with other systems such as manufacturing and transport, there is a huge research base across many scientific disciplines that seek to improve different components of agriculture, with particular emphasis on the farming sector. Unlike manufacturing and transport, application of operations research methods in agriculture is low with the rate of industry adoption is minimal. This paper begins with a survey of the distinctive issues and additional complexities that OR practitioners face when addressing agricultural systems: specifically in the planning of supply-chain activities such as harvests, farm-to-factory transport and post-harvest processing. We then document success stories in the sugar, wine and other agricultural industries. Finally we consider how operations research can be applied within a broader research methodology that incorporates industry engagement and achieves adoption and impact in practice.