The Super Bowl and Texas Agriculture

Ever make the connection between tomorrow's Super Bowl in snowy Dallas? From the footballs used to your favorite snacks, Texas Agriculture gives a big boost to the gridiron game plan. Thanks to the North Texas E-News for these AgFacts!

• Leather is used to make footballs and Texas leads the nation in cattle with more than 13 million head with an annual production value of about $6 billion.

• Texas produced 8 million bales of cotton in 2010, which is enough to make every person on earth a Super Bowl Championship T-shirt - and still have almost a billion shirts left over.

•  Peanuts are a favorite snack at football games, and in Texas we produce more than 700 million pounds - enough to make 7 billion peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.

• Hot dogs are a traditional favorite at football games and the Texas pork industry has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $250 million.

• Hot dogs also need hot dog buns. Texas growers produce an average 90 million bushels of wheat annually, enough to make more than 25 billion hot dog buns.

• Texas is a leading dairy state and produces enough milk each year to fill the massive Cowboys Stadium more than six times.

• A football field, including the end zones, is 360 feet long-by-160 feet wide and covers 1.3 acres. The entire Cowboys Stadium site covers 140 acres. By comparison, Texas encompasses 144 million acres of agricultural and rural land, more than any other state in the nation.

• In contrast, the combined areas of the two cities competing in this year’s Super Bowl is about 63,000 acres, and you could fit more than 2,500 of them within Texas’ borders. In fact, you could fit the entire states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin inside Texas more than two-and-a-half times, and still have 9 million acres left over.

• Cornstarch can be used to make a biodegradable plastic for drink cups, utensils and more. Texas growers produced 302 million bushels of corn in 2010.

• How better to celebrate a Super Bowl Championship than with a good steak dinner? Texas produces about 8 billion pounds of beef each year. That's the equivalent of 16 billion 8-ounce steaks or enough to supply 150 steaks to every person watching the game in the United States (according to Nielson estimates, last year's Super Bowl attracted 106.5 million U.S. viewers).

 So while you are enjoying the game and commercials, remember this is just the start of how Agriculture impacts our lives. Remember to Thank A Farmer and Rancher for all the great things we have