Fun Facts

A finished bale of cotton weighs about 480 pounds.

More than 87 percent of land in Kansas is farmland.

A common ingredient in fertilizer is phosphate, which comes from ancient sea life. Phosphate is one of many natural ingredients used to keep soil — and plants! — healthy.

For a dessert to officially be considered ice cream, it must contain at least 10 percent milkfat.

Corn is produced on every continent of the world with the exception of Antarctica. 

Did you know cotton is becoming a big crop in Kansas? Last year, farmers here produced over 164 million pounds of cotton! 

Did you know Kansas farmers grow about 330 million bushels of wheat each year? That’s enough to make 23 billion loaves of bread!

It takes five to six months for a pig to reach market weight (about 265 pounds). One market hog provides about 160 pounds of pork for the grocery store’s meat case.

The United States grows more soybeans than any other country and six out of every ten rows of soybeans are exported to other countries.

Did you know there are 15,000 soybean farms in Kansas? In 2016, Kansas farmers harvested more than 4 million acres of soybeans.

About one-third of the milk produced in the U.S. is used for making cheese.

Grain sorghum is one of the oldest known grains. Its origins can be traced back to ancient Africa and India.

Kansas is the top state for growing and storing wheat.

All the wheat grown in Kansas in a single year would fit in a train stretching from western Kansas to the Atlantic Ocean.

Cotton bolls, which are the puffs of white produced by cotton plants, are technically fruit.

There are more than 300 licensed dairy herds in Kansas with about 143,000 cows total. In 2015 cows produced about 365 million gallons of milk, making Kansas the 16th largest milk producing state.

Did you know the corn humans eat is different from the corn that cattle eat? Most of the corn people eat is sweet  corn. Cattle and other livestock eat field corn.

One bale of cotton can make 3,085 diapers.

One Kansas farmer raises enough food to feed about 155 people!

In addition to meat, pigs provide us with lots of other products, including valves for human heart surgery, suede for shoes and clothing, and gelatin for many food and non-food uses.

From farm to processor to distribution and retail, dairy creates jobs that support the economic well-being of Kansans. The dairy industry contributes $592 million annually to the Kansas economy and...