Fun Facts

The cotton gin first came to Kansas in 1854 when a Polish immigrant wanted to gin local cotton near Valley Falls.

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.

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

Kansas is the top state for growing and storing wheat.

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

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...

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

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

One bale of cotton can make 1,256 pillowcases.

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 4,312 mid-calf socks.

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.

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

Gluten-free grains have no caloric advantage over grains containing gluten like wheat, barley and rye. All carbohydrates have four calories per gram. Gluten-free foods are often higher in fat and...

A finished bale of cotton weighs about 480 pounds.

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.  

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

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

Fertilizer contains a lot of helpful nutrients, thanks to Mother Nature! Potash, which is salt from ancient evaporated oceans, is used in fertilizer to feed our soil.

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.

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!