Fun Facts

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!

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

One bale of cotton can make 1,256 pillowcases.

Cattle are great recyclers. They convert natural resources that would otherwise be wasted into beef, an edible protein containing 10 essential nutrients such as zinc, iron and B vitamins.  

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

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

Did you know Kansas has more than 2 million pigs?

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

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.

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

Beef from cows and steers are used in two different ways. Cow meat is used primarily as ground beef for hamburgers and the majority of steer meat is used as steaks.

There are 7 different breeds of dairy cattle. Farmers choose their breeds based on milk production, size and even personality.

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

Farmers in Kansas grow more than 650 million bushels of corn each year. 

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

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

One bushel of corn fed to livestock produces 5.6 pounds of retail beef, 13 pounds of retail pork, 19.6 pounds of chicken or 28 pounds of catfish.

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.

Sorghum can be used to make environmentally-friendly packing peanuts, fencing materials, floral arrangements, brooms and more!

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. 

Looking for a gluten-free grain? Try sorghum! It's gluten-free and packed with protein, iron, vitamin B-6, niacin, magnesium and phosphorus.