Texas Agriculture Gets in on The Big Plays at Super Bowl 50 (2/5/2016)

AUSTIN - While Texas football teams may be watching from the sidelines, there’s still a good chance Texas agriculture will take the field when Super Bowl 50 kicks off Sunday, Feb. 7, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Whether you root for the Denver Broncos or Carolina Panthers, make sure you also cheer on the farmers and ranchers who put the super in Super Bowl Sunday.

“Agriculture matters in every aspect of our lives from the dinner table to the football field,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said. “It’s not a team I’m rooting for this year. I’m rooting for agriculture to win big, as it’s the most vital part of our lives, a driving factor for our nation’s economy and the second largest industry in Texas.”

Agriculture will play a big role in this weekend’s game. Here’s a snapshot of how agriculture will star in Super Bowl 50:

• -Footballs are made from leather, and Texas leads the nation in cattle production with more than 11 million head generating an annual production value of more than $11 billion.

• -Texas produced 5.7 million bales of cotton in 2015, which is enough to make a Super Bowl Championship T-shirt for every person in the U.S., China, India, Russia, Mexico and Japan.

• -Peanuts are a favorite snack at football games, and here in Texas, we produced 588 million pounds in 2015. That’s enough to make more than 5.3 billion peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches or over 1 billion 8-ounce bags of roasted peanuts.

• -Hot dogs are also a traditional favorite at football games, and in Texas, our pork industry has an annual statewide economic impact of $110 million.

• -Hot dogs need hot dog buns. Texas growers produced 106 million bushels of wheat in 2015 — that’s enough to make more than 15 billion hot dog buns.

• -How better to celebrate a Super Bowl Championship than with a good steak dinner? Texas produces about 7 billion pounds of beef each year. That’s the equivalent of 14 billion 8-ounce steaks, or enough to supply 125 steaks to every person watching the game in the U.S. (according to Nielson estimates, last year’s Super Bowl attracted a record 114.4 million U.S. viewers).

• -Cornstarch can be used to make biodegradable plastic for drink cups, utensils and more. Texas growers produced 265 million bushels of corn in 2015.

• -A football field, including the end zones, is 360 feet long by 160 feet wide and covers 1.3 acres. By comparison, Texas is home to 167 million acres of agricultural and rural land — that’s more than any other state in the nation.