Fun Facts

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

The largest market for field corn is to provide feed for animals like cattle, pigs, chicken, and even catfish. 

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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

A finished bale of cotton weighs about 480 pounds.

In pre-refrigeration days, hogs were harvested in the fall and cured for six to seven months, just in time for Easter dinner. That’s how ham came to be the traditional Easter favorite.

One 60-pound bushel of wheat provides about 42 pounds of white flour, enough for about 70, one-pound loaves of white bread.

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!

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

Did you know corn tortillas can differ in color based on the type of corn used? Some are white and others are yellow.

One dairy cow can produce more than 3,000 gallons of milk in a year. There are about 160,000 dairy cows in Kansas. That's a lot of milk!

There are about 60-80 pods on a mature soybean plant. Each pod contains three small soybeans.

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

Did you know Kansas has more than 2 million pigs?

The average Kansas dairy cow produces about 7 gallons of milk each day. That’s more than 2,544 gallons of milk over the course of a typical year.

The top five agiculture commodities in Kansas are cattle, corn, wheat, soybeans and sorghum.

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