Corn Facts

Did you know corn is America's number one field crop? Corn leads all other crops in value and volume of production.

• Did you know there are more than 3,500 different uses for corn products. It can be processed and used in such things as baby food, chewing gum, dessert icing, fireworks, ethanol fuel, peanut butter, antibiotics, potato chips, soap, paint, glue, shoe polish, aspirin, ink, marshmallows, ice cream, cosmetics, and rust preventatives. It is also used in vitamins, the manufacturing of photographic film, and in the production of plastics.
• One bushel of corn will sweeten more than 400 cans of pop.

• A bushel of corn fed to livestock produces 5.6 pounds of retail beef, 13 pounds of retail pork, 32 pounds of chicken, or 28 pounds of catfish.

• Farmers grow corn on every continent except Antarctica.

• The main ingredient in most dry pet food is corn.

• The corn cob (ear) is actually part of the corn plant’s flower.

• Each tassel on a corn plant releases as many as 5 million grains of pollen.

• There are about 600 kernels on each ear of corn.

• Pioneers planted 4 corn kernels for every plant they hoped to harvest: "1 for the maggot, 1 for the crow, 1 for the cutworm, and 1 to grow".

• The corn plant has both male and female parts. The silk is the female part while the tassel is the male part.

• Sorbitol, produced from the corn sugar dextrose, is used in toothpaste as a low-calorie, water soluble bulking agent.

• Your bacon and egg breakfast, glass of milk at lunch, or hamburger for supper were all produced with U.S. corn.
• Corn is a major component in many food items like cereals, peanut butter, snack foods and soft drinks.

• Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota account for over 50 percent of the corn grown in the U.S. Other major corn growing states are Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky.
• The "Corn Belt" includes the states of Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky.
• NEVER add salt to corn as it is cooking. It toughens it. Instead, for better tasting corn, try adding a little milk and sugar to the water.
• Corn has an incredibly long shelf life? Archeologists have been able to pop 1,000-year-old popcorn!
• Corn is produced on every continent of the world with the exception of Antarctica.
• The Indian word maiz means "sacred mother" or "giver over life". Some ancient tribes believed that corn is afraid to be cooked so a woman must warm it first with her breath. Cornmeal was also sprinkled across the doorway to keep enemies out.
• In 11 summer days, Ontario, Canada corn produces enough oxygen for the annual respiratory needs of the whole province. Source

Corn Math Facts

• An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows. Source
  
• A pound of corn consists of approximately 1,300 kernels.
  
• 100 bushels of corn produces approximately 7,280,000 kernels.
  
• In the U.S., corn production measures more than 2 times that of any other crop.

Resources:

American Corn Growers Association: www.acga.org
Corn Refiners Association: www.corn.org
National Corn Growers Association: www.ncga.com
U.S. Grains Council: www.grains.org