Fun Facts

Kansas exports more than $4.8 billion in agricultural products per year.

Grains can be categorized into food grains (for people) and feed grains (for cattle). Cattle eat feed grains like field corn and grain sorghum. An average of 4 ½ pounds of grain is used to produce a...

Mexico and Japan are our top international corn buyers. They buy 50 percent of U.S. corn exports.

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

Output from Kansas agriculture has a direct economic impact of $22.5 billion per year.

Pig farmers have reduced greenhouse gas emissions on pig farms by 35% per pound of pork by changing how crops are raised, how pigs are fed, and how nutrients are recycled.

Pork tenderloin is as lean as a skinless chicken breast.

Milk is one of the best sources of calcium. Our bodies absorb 28 percent of the calcium found in milk, but as little as 5 percent of the calcium found in other foods like spinach.

In Kansas alone, pig farmers raised over 3.2 million pigs in 2015, producing over 600 million pounds of pork!

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

There are more than 29 cuts of beef that meet government guidelines for lean, including tenderloin, T-bone steak and extra lean ground beef.

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.

Did you know Kansas has an official state soil? It's called Harney silt loam and it covers about 4 million acres of land in our state. 

In 2018, farmers in Kansas planted 165,000 acres of cotton, which produced about 335,000 bales!

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

Cotton can be found in much more than clothes and other fabrics! Cotton by-products can be used to make paper currency, cosmetics and feed for dairy cattle and livestock.

Kansas is known for its sunflowers. They provide food for insects, birds and cattle, and make great cooking oil, biofuel and a delicious snack for people!

About two-thirds of the Kansas corn crop is used in-state as livestock feed or in food production. 

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

Within an hour of birth calves are up and ready to nurse. A baby calf will drink a gallon of milk a day.

Sows give birth (called farrowing) to an average of eight to twelve piglets at a time and will raise six to eight litters of piglets in their lifetime.