This month, let’s look at some interesting facts about farming that might be new to you.
Canada is the world’s largest producer and exporter of flaxseed, canola, pulses, durum wheat, peas, lentils, and mustard seeds.
Pulse crops contain nutrients found in both the vegetable and meat food groups, including significant protein, fibre, folate, iron, and other minerals.
Just over half of Canada’s vegetable crop is grown for processing. The top five crops are sweet corn, green peas, carrots, beans, and tomatoes.
Apples, blueberries, and grapes make up over 80 per cent of Canada’s fruit acreage.
World food demand will increase 70 per cent by the year 2050.
In Canada, a total of 26 million hens produce more than 600 million dozen eggs per year, or about 7.2 billion eggs. Ontario accounts for 40 per cent of Canada’s total egg production.
The average laying hen can lay about 320 eggs a year. In Canada, no chickens are ever given hormones, regardless of the type of farm they live on.
The gestation period of cows is about 283 days (9 1/2 months).
Eleven top-quality leather basketballs can be made from one cowhide.
50,000 fewer gallons of water are needed to grow an acre of corn today, compared to 20 years ago.
Pigs live in barns specially designed with fans or “curtain-sided barns” that can open if needed to help control humidity and temperature. To keep the animals disease-free, most barns have strict sanitation standards and animal health rules.
Sows are female pigs that usually bear eight to 12 piglets in a litter and give birth (farrow) twice a year.
One in eight Canadian jobs is related to agriculture.
Less than two per cent of Canada’s population are farmers, and yet they are able to feed a population of more than 30 million and export to foreign markets.
Of the 10,000 items in a typical grocery store, at least 2,500 use corn in some form during the processing stage.
Green peas have three times more fibre, 40 per cent more iron, and 25 per cent more vitamin A and C than green beans.
McCain Foods, headquartered in Florenceville, N.B., produces one out of every three French fries consumed in the entire world.
Only three per cent of the Earth’s surface can be used to grow food crops.
One dairy cow drinks the equivalent of a bathtub of water every day.
There are three to four jobs waiting for every graduate of an agriculture school in Ontario. For the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus agriculture diploma program, 95 per cent of the students have a job by graduation.
Think about this: Remember that God has a bigger plan for you than you do for yourself.
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