24 agri facts #Farm24

As part of #Farm24 we've put together a list of 24 agricultural facts to celebrate farming in the UK.

  1. UK cows produces 60million pints of milk a day!
  2. The red tractor certifies that food has been produced to standards across the food chain from farm to pack
  3. The UK produces 14-15 million tonnes of wheat a year!
  4. There are 90 different breeds and crosses of sheep in the UK
  5. The world record for the most combine harvesters working simultaneously on a single field is 224!
  6. A cow has four stomachs; Rumen, Reticulum, Omasum and Abomasum
  7.  A pigs gestation period is 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days and they can have a litter of up to 9-11 piglets
  8. The National Trust could be classed as the largest farmer with 618,000 acres of land & over 2,000 tenants
  9. Every cow has its own unique passport!
  10. 60% of all food eaten in the UK is grown by British farmers
  11. There are over 20million hectares of farmland in the UK - that’s equivalent to 30 million football pitches!
  12. A pigs squeal can be as loud as 115 decibels - that’s 3 decibels higher than the sound of a supersonic airline
  13. In 2016 the UK produced 10,372 million eggs!
  14. In 1995 the potato became the first vegetable to be grown in space when seeds were germinated on the spaceshuttle Columbia.
  15. Over 75% of the UK land mass is looked after by farmers
  16. The first self-propelled combine harvester was launched to the market by Class in 1953.
  17. Approx 700 UK pea growers will harvest 2 billion portions of peas to feed Britain for a year
  18. In 2016 466,000 people worked on agricultural holidings in the UK
  19. British farmers contribute over £100 billion to the British economy every year
  20. There are more chickens than people on the Earth
  21. A border collie called Cap was the most expensive sheepdog sold last year at auction for £15,000
  22. The worlds largest farm tractor is the Williams Big Bud 747, weighing 100,000lbs
  23. In 2016 there were approximately 218,000 farms in the UK, averaging 80 hectares
  24. Britains major root vegatble is the carrot: 700,000 tonnes are produced each year worth £290million - that equates to 100 carrots per person!

Whats your favourite farming fact? Tell us @ruralinsurance

Sources: Various. If you would like to know more contact marketing@ruralinsurance.co.uk