Corn
•An acre of corn will give off 4,000 gallons of water per day in evaporation
•One bushel of corn weighs 56 pounds
•Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota produce more than half of the United State's corn crop
•One bushel of corn produces enough syrup to sweeten 324 cans of soda pop.
•Americans consume 17.3 billion quarts of popped corn each year.
•Corn is grown in every state in the United States
•Some golf tees are made from corn products

Soybeans
•Illinois is the top producer of soybeans in the United States.
•More than 80,000 newspapers in the United States use soy ink
•China uses more American grown soybeans than any other country.
•Each soybean plant grows 60- 80 pods and each pod has three beans inside.
•Soybean oil is used to make pizza dough.
•A bushel of soybeans weighs about 60 lbs.
•Henry Ford used soybeans for paint and plastic in his cars
•Soybeans are used to make fortune cookies

Cattle
•Cows can eat around 40 pounds of food each day
•Beef fat, called tallow, is an ingredient in soaps, cosmetics, candles, shortenings, and chewing gum.
•Many medicines, including insulin, are made from the glands of a cow.
•A calf weighs about 80 pounds at birth.
•It takes the hide of 3.8 steers to make 72 footballs.
•Each year, the average American consumes 112 pounds of beef.
•There are 1,470,000 cattle in Illinois
•A 1,000 pound steer can produce 432 pounds of meat.
•In 2003, 35.7 million cattle were harvested.

Hogs
•As pigs grow, they can eat up to 9 pounds of feed per day.
•The average person will eat twenty 240 pound pigs in their lifetime.
•Insulin is made from a pig's adrenal gland and helps people with diabetes lower their blood sugar.
•In the old days, ship captains kept pigs on board because they believed that pigs always swam towards the nearest shore.
•There are more than 180 species of pigs, found on every continent except Antarctica.
•Pigs weigh about 250 pounds by the time they are four to six months old.
•Illinois Pork Producers raise 8.3 million pigs each year.
•Pigs do not sweat.

Pumpkins
•Pumpkins are fruits, not vegetables.
•Pumpkins are 90% water
•Illinois is the leading state in pumpkin production
•Giant Pumpkins can grow 5 pounds per day.
•A single vine from a pumpkin plant can grow up to 20 feet long.
•Pumpkin flowers are edible.
•In early colonial times, pumpkins were used in the making of pie crust, not the filling


Horses
•There are more horses in Illinois than there are in Kentucky.
•Horses drink 10 to 20 gallons of fresh water per day.
•There are more than 350 different breeds of horses and ponies.
•There are 219,000 horses in Illinois; most of them are used for show or recreation.
•A thoroughbred horse can run a mile in 1 ½ minutes.
•Horses in Illinois consume 500,000 tons of hay and grain each year.
•An average life span of a horse is around 20 to 25 years old.
•Professionals that trim horses ‘ hooves are called farriers


Dairy
•The most common breed of dairy cow is the Holstein.
•It takes 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese
•Americans eat about 350 slices of pizza per second, or almost 3 billion pizzas (made with Mozzarella Cheese) per year.
•It takes more than 21 pounds of whole milk to make one pound of butter.
•Canada, Japan, and Mexico are the largest markets for U.S. dairy exports.
•A cow's udder can hold 25- 50 pounds of milk.
•Dairy cows drink 35 gallons of water a day - the equivalent of a bathtub of water.
•Illinois has about 103,000 dairy cows that produce more than two million pounds of milk a year.
•The average American consumes almost 25 gallons of milk a year; that's 400 glasses!
•The average cows produces 90 glasses of milk a day.
•Dairy cows weigh about 1,400 pounds.


Chickens
•A chicken can travel up to 9 miles per hour
•Each year, a person will eat approximately 250 eggs.
•Laying Hens sit on their eggs for 21 days until they hatch
•A hen requires 24 to 26 hours to produce an egg.
•Most eggs produced today will be at the grocery store within 72 hours.

Sources Used
Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom
Farm Facts for Kids- Cultivate Illinois (Office of the Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias)
National Cattleman's Beef Association- Beef USA Beef Industry Fact Sheet