Fun Facts

Did you know some of the fertilizer farmers add to the soil comes from the air we breathe? Companies can convert nitrogen in the air into nitrogen to nourish the ground.

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

Soybean oil is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E.

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...

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

About a third of a steer is used for beef production. The rest of the animal is used to make by-products found in medicines, cosmetics, detergents, insulation, and much more!

One bale of cotton can make 3,085 diapers.

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.

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.

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

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

Wheat flour is a good source of complex carbohydrates and contains protein. Plus, it’s low in fat and sodium.

Gluten is what helps bread expand while the dough rises, and hold its shape while baking and after it cools. It’s also what makes bread chewy.

Drink local with milk! It takes about 48 hours for milk to travel from dairy farms to the grocery store.

The majority of oil used for cooking in our country is U.S.-grown 100% soybean oil!

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

Kansas grows winter wheat that is planted and sprouts in the fall, becomes dormant in the winter, grows again in the spring and is harvested in early summer.

About four percent of the land in Kansas is part of conservation or wetland reserve programs.

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

Enriched white bread and other enriched grain products are a good source of iron and B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and folic acid), as well as complex carbohydrates.

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