Fun Facts

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. 

Small engines like lawnmowers and boats can use E10 fuel.

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

Did you know Kansas has more than 2 million pigs?

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

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

One bushel of corn makes 2.8 gallons of ethanol.

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.

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

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.

Pork tenderloin is as lean as a skinless chicken breast.

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.

Did you know that in Kansas cows outnumber people 2-to1? There are almost 3 million people and more than 6 million cattle!