Fun Facts To Spice Up Your Classroom

Each American consumes, on average, 53 pounds of bread per year.
Assuming a sandwich was eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it would take 168 days to eat the amount of bread produced from one bushel of wheat.
A family of four could live for 10 years off the bread produced by one acre of wheat.
One bushel of wheat will produce 73 one-pound loaves of bread.
Farmers receive approximately 5 cents (or less) from each loaf of bread sold.

Straight from the cow, the temperature of cow's milk is about 97 degrees Fahrenheit.
The average U.S. dairy cow produces 22.5 quarts of milk each day. That's about 16,000 glasses of milk per year - enough for about 40 people. One cow can give 200,000 glasses of milk in a lifetime.
It takes approximately 1.4 gallons of milk to make 1 gallon of ice cream.
Cheese was first made over 4,000 years ago in Asia.

Pigs can't sweat. Pigs have no sweat glands, that is why they roll around in mud to cool off.
Heart valves from hogs are used to replace damaged or diseased human heart valves.
A pig can run a 7-minute mile.
A baby pig, or piglet, weighs about 3 1/2 pounds at birth and will double its weight in just 7 days.

More than 100 medicines used by humans come from cattle.
One cowhide can produce enough leather to make 20 footballs or 18 soccer balls or 18 volleyballs or 12 basketballs.
Products we use in our everyday lives come from plant and animal by-products produced by America's farmers and ranchers:
- Health Care: Pharmaceuticals, surgical sutures,ointments,latex gloves, x-ray film, gelatin for capsules and heart valves.
- Construction: Lumber, paints, brushes, tar paper, dry wall and tool handles.
- Transportation: Fuel, lubricants, antifreeze, tires and upholstery.
- Manufacturing: Adhesives, solvents, and detergents.
- Printing: Paper, ink and film.
- Personal Care Products: Shampoo, cosmetics, lotions, finger nail polish and toothpaste.
- Education: Crayons, textbooks, chalk, desks, pencils and paper.
- Sports: Uniforms, baseball bats, leather equipment and shoes.

Sheep make a bleating sound. A baby lamb can identify its mother by her bleat.
There are 150 yards (450 feet) of wool yarn in a baseball.
The small intestines from 11 sheep are needed to make 1 tennis racket.
Sheep have poor eyesight, but an excellent sense of hearing.
One pound of wool can be spun into 20 miles of fine yarn.
Sheep have no top front teeth but the roof of their mouth is hard. This permits sheep to eat vegetation close to the ground and prevents them from pulling up plant roots.

Farmers use computers designed and built in cities to track market information, maintain balance spreadsheets, and monitor weather satellites.
The environment and everyone in it, benefits from research on biodegradable plant products that break down easily in landfills.
Agriculture land provides food and habitat for 75% of the nation's wildlife. Deer, moose, fowl and other species have shown significant population increases in the past several years.
Genetic engineering with plants and animals has resulted in new antibodies for immunizations. Other research has developed surgical techniques and pharmaceuticals from agriculture that help save lives.
Ethanol and new bio-diesel fuels made from corn and other grains are beneficial to the environment and promote energy security.

Soy crayons have been created to replace toxic petroleum-wax crayons, soy crayons are safer to use, brighter in color, and less expensive to produce.
One acre (43,560 square feet) of soybeans can produce 82,368 crayons.
Soybean oil is the most widely used vegetable oil. It is found in margarines, salad dressings, canned foods, sauces, bakery goods, and processed fried foods.

Americans are eating 900% more broccoli than we did 20 years ago. Today, the average person in the U.S. eats four and a half pounds each year.
Only seven states produce rice. They are California, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, and Texas.
California farmers and ranchers produce $73 million in food, fiber and flowers every day.
The average child will eat 1,500 peanut and jelly sandwiches by high school.
The average American eats 25 pounds of rice each year.
Pumpkins and tomatoes are fruits, not vegetables.
Potato chips are America's favorite snack. We eat 1.2 billion pounds each year.
Turkey eggs are twice as big as chicken eggs. They are a pale creamy tan color with brown speckles and hatch in 28 days.
Americans altogether, on the average, eat 18 acres of pizza every day!
One new McDonald's opens somewhere in the world every 6 hours.

Many farmers grow more than just grains, vegetables and livestock. Some farmers grow trees, This is called a woodlot. A woodlot is not an original forest, because the timber has been cut down before. Sometimes the trees in a woodlot have been cut down four, five, or even six times. After the trees have been cut down, the farmer lets them grow up again, until they are big enough to be harvested once more.
Not only is the wood on woodlots good to sell to timber companies to make paper, etc., but the timber can also be useful on the farm. The farmer can cut down timber and use it to build fences, barns, or other buildings. Some farmers grow specialized woodlots that are used for a specific purpose. A woodlot may be used to harvest maple syrup or as a Christmas tree farm.

George Washington liked ice cream so much he reportedly had a bill for $200 for ice cream one summer.
The first ice cream cone was made, served, and eaten in New York City on September 22, 1886. The maker, Italo Marchiony, was granted a patent on his cone mold in 1903.
Abe Lincoln's mother died when the family dairy cow ate poisonous mushrooms and Mrs. Lincoln drank the milk.

A typical, full grown Holstein cow weighs about 1,400 pounds and produces 60 pounds of milk per day.
One day's production is 2.6 pounds of butter or 7 gallons of milk or 6 pounds of cheese.
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.
It usually takes about 20 minutes for a cow to be milked. On average a cow is milked 2or 3 times a day.
Hamburger meat from a single steer will make about 720 quarter pound hamburger patties. That's enough for a family of 4 to enjoy hamburgers each day for nearly 6 months.

Onions contain a mild antibiotic that fights infections, soothes burns, tames bee stings, and relives the itch of athletes foot.
Archeologists have found evidence that humans enjoy eating apples since 6500 B.C. Each of us eats more than 19 pounds of apples annually.
Grapes are one of the oldest cultivated fruits. They have been around for more than 8,000 years.
Americans eat about 125 pounds of potatoes a year, about half from fresh potatoes and half in processed foods.

It takes 24 to 26 hours for a hen to produce an egg: there is 30 minutes between each egg-producing cycle.
About 240 million laying hens produce about 5.5 billion dozen eggs per year in the United States.
Egg yolks are one of the few foods that naturally contain Vitamin D.

Page last updated: July 22, 2022