I'm a "Corn Star"

So, for this weeks County Music Monday, I'm gonna ditch the life lessons and philosophical-ness which I usually try and convey to you all, and replace it with some, well I'm not quite sure yet.  I guess I'm winging this post tonight. haha

So this weeks song is CORN STAR by the one and only Craig Morgan.  I stumbled upon this song about two weeks ago and immediately fell in LOVE with it.  I honestly am a true sucker for funny songs with great innuendos. So thus I present you with.... CORN STAR.

So instead of me relating this song to life, I'm just gonna give you some great CORN facts.  Since my family makes a majority of its living fromcorn production, it only seems fit.
So here we go....  

1. U.S. farmers produce about 40 percent of the world's corn, using only 20 percent of the total area harvested in the world. 
2. One bushel of corn is 56 pounds. That means U.S. farmers produce an average of more than 9,000 pounds of corn per acre. 
   
3. If U.S. farmers used crop production practices from 1931 to produce an amount of corn equivalent to the 2008 crop, it would require 490 million acres—an area more than 120 million acres larger than the state of Alaska.
   
4. Individuals or families own 82 percent of corn farms. Another 6 percent are family-held corporations.
   
5. Less than 15 percent of U.S. corn acres are irrigated.
   
6. Farmers today produce 70 percent more corn per pound of fertilizer than as recently as the 1970s.
   
7. Corn farmers have reduced total fertilizer use by 10 percent since 1980.
   
8. According to the USDA, one acre of corn… removes about 8 tons of carbon dioxide from the air in a growing season…at 180 bushels per acre produces enough oxygen to supply a year’s needs for 131 people.
   
9. Corn production has marched steadily upward for decades while using fewer acres.
   
10. American farmers produced the five largest corn crops in history during the past five years. Even after supplying food-makers, ranchers, ethanol producers and grain exporters, America will again be able to save 10 percent of this year’s harvest for the future.
    
11. Farmers today grow five times as much corn as they did in the 1930s — on 20 percent less land. That is still 13 million acres, or 20,000 square miles, twice the size of Massachusetts.
    
12. The yield per acre has skyrocketed from 24 bushels in 1931 to 154 now, or a six-fold gain.

Now it is sad to say that many people in our world today are uneducated in the facts about farming and ranching in America.  It is not always their fault though, many people have never been exposed to truths about the agriculture industry, because today the average consumer is 3 generations removed from the farm. Because of this fact, most consumers get their thoughts and opinions from public figures, social media, and television, none of which most of the time are connected to production agriculture and report the facts.
 
So again I say, like I always do, it doesn't matter what your choices and opinions are when it comes to your food choices, but it does matter that you are making choices that are based on truth and facts from the people who produce your food.  The ones who work extremely hard to produce the safest and healthiest food for us as consumers to enjoy.

You as a consumer are not the only ones who eat the food that farmers and ranchers produce, they eat it as well.  So don't you think they would want to raise safe and healthy food? Farmers and Ranchers eat from the same table as the rest of us. 

...that's what she said 

Ashley