20 CapitalPress.com
June 3, 2016
Holstein cows rest at an Idaho dairy in this file photo.
Sean Ellis/Capital Press file
Fun facts and trivia about dairy
D16-4/#7
• The average cow produc-
es enough milk each day to fill
six one-gallon jugs, about 55
pounds of milk.
• It takes more than 21
pounds of whole milk to
make 1 pound of butter.
• The fastest-growing va-
riety of cheese produced in
the U.S. is Hispanic-style
soft cheese.
• All 50 states in the Unit-
ed States have dairy farms.
• The natural yellow color
of butter comes mainly from
the beta-carotene found in
the grass cows eat.
• A typical dairy cow
weighs 1,400 pounds and
consumes about 50 pounds of
dry matter each day.
• Cheddar cheese is the
most popular natural cheese
in the U.S.
• It takes 12 pounds of
whole milk to make 1 gallon
of ice cream.
• The average cow drinks
from 30 to 50 gallons of wa-
ter each day — about a bath-
tub full.
• Large ice cream-produc-
ing states include California,
Indiana, Texas, Pennsylva-
nia, Illinois and Minnesota.
• Super Bowl Sunday
rates as the No. 1 day for piz-
za consumption.
• Cows have an acute
sense of smell, and can smell
something up to six miles
away.
• It takes more cows to
produce milk annually for
Pizza Hut cheese (about
170,000) than there are people
living in Green Bay, Wis.
• The average buyer pur-
chases cheese 15 times at re-
tail each year.
• McDonald’s uses approx-
imately 4 million gallons of
low-fat vanilla yogurt each
year in its Fruit ’n’ Yogurt
Parfait.
• Vanilla is America’s fa-
vorite ice cream flavor.
• Tank trucks for transport-
ing fluid milk were first intro-
duced in 1914.
• Each person in America
eats an average of 46 slices of
pizza a year.
• More ice cream is sold on
Sunday than on any other day
of the week.
• Plastic milk bottles were
first introduced in the United
States in 1967.
• More than 1,000 new
dairy products are introduced
every year.
• A cow has four stomachs
and 32 teeth.
• About 300 varieties of
cheese are sold in the U.S.
— University of Illinois
Extension