Quick Facts

Here’s a great way to get your class’ attention! Introduce your students to facts about the agriculture in your state by using  Ag in the Classroom State Facts. Just click on your state to bring up lots of cool information ☺ Or just quiz them on some of the fun trivia realities below.

• One acre of farmland is nearly the size of a football field.
• A farmer in the United States grows enough to feed about 144 people for one full year.
• It takes 100 to 1000 years to develop 1 inch of topsoil.
• One bushel of corn makes 32 pounds of starch, 33 pounds of sweetener, or 2.5 gallons of ethanol.
• A dairy cow consumes 35 gallons of water, 20 pounds of grain and concentrated feed and 35 pounds of hay or silage (a mixture of corn and grass) in just one day.
• About 99% of today’s agricultural production depends on only 24 different domesticated plant species. Of those, rice, wheat and corn account for most of the world’s caloric intake.
• Americans are eating about 14 pounds of turkey apiece each year, more than double the rate 20 years ago.
• Bananas are about 99.5% fat free.
• Blueberries are the second most popular berry in the United States.
• Honeybees must tap two million flowers to make one pound of honey. Each worker honeybee makes 1/12th teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
• In the United States, lettuce is the second most popular fresh vegetable.
• More than 96 billion pounds of edible “surplus” food is thrown away in the U.S. each year. It is estimated that almost 27% of our food supply is wasted.
• One bale of cotton can produce 1,217 men’s t-shirts or 313,600 one hundred dollar ($100) bills.
• One bushel of corn will sweeten more than 400 cans of pop.
• One bushel of wheat will produce 73 one-pound loaves of bread.
• Pasta made its way to the New World through the English who found it while traveling through Italy. The English made pasta by cooking it for about a half an hour and then smothering it with cream sauce and cheese. This was the beginning of Macaroni and Cheese!
• Peaches are the third most popular fruit grown in America.
• Popcorn pops because water is stored in a small circle of soft starch in each kernel. As the kernel is heated, the water heats, the droplet of moisture turns to steam and the steam builds up pressure until the kernel finally explodes to many times its original volume.
• Soy crayons have been created to replace toxic petroleum-wax crayons; soy crayons are easier to use, brighter in color, and less expensive to produce. One acre (43,560 square feet) of soybeans can produce 82,368 crayons.
• The bright orange color of carrots tells you they’re an excellent source of Vitamin A, which is important for good eyesight, especially at night. Vitamin A helps your body fight infection, and keeps your skin and hair healthy!
• The eggshell may have as many as 17,000 tiny pores over its surface. Through them, the egg can absorb flavors and odors. Storing them in their cartons helps keep them fresh!
• There are about 600- 900 kernels on each ear of corn.