• Cheddar cheese is the most popular natural cheese in the U.S.
  
  
• It takes more than 21 pounds of whole milk to make one pound of butter.
  
  
• It takes 3 to 3 1/2 cups of broccoli to equal the calcium in one cup of milk.
  
  
• Milk and dairy products are the most readily available sources of calcium, providing about 73 percent of the calcium in our food supply.
  
  
• The average cow produces enough milk each day to fill six one-gallon jugs, about 55 pounds of milk.
  
  
• The fastest growing variety of cheese produced in the U.S. is Hispanic-style soft
  cheese.
  
  
• The natural yellow color of butter comes mainly from the beta-carotene found in the
  grass cows eat.
  
  
• A typical dairy cow weighs 1400 pounds and consumes about 50 pounds of food each day.
  
  
• The average cow drinks from 30-50 gallons of water each day – about a bathtub’s
  worth.
  
  
• Cows have an acute sense of smell, and can smell something up to six miles away.
  
  
• More than 1000 new dairy products are introduced every year.
  
  
• About 300 varieties of cheese are sold in the U.S.
• One cow produces about 350,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.
  
  
• People crave cheese more than any other food.
  
  
• More than 10 pounds of milk go into one pound of cheese.
  
  
• U.S. cheese consumption reached a new record high of 31.3 pounds per capita in 2005.
  
  
• Cheddar is the most popular natural cheese in the U.S. (Cheddar accounts for 9.39 pounds per capita or 27 percent pound share.)
  
  
• A cheese maker kneads mozzarella cheese with his hands, like a baker making bread, until he obtains a smooth, shiny paste, a strand of which he pulls out and lops off, forming the individual mozzarella.
  
  
• The United States' largest importer of cheese is Mexico. (21,400 metric tons, about $65 million dollars.)
  
  
• Cheese making dates back more than 4,000 years.
  
  

Sources: Dairy Facts, 2004, International Dairy Foods Association, U.S. Dairy Export Council, Dairy
Management, Inc., USDA National Agricultural Statistics Services; International Dairy Foods Association,
USDA, and the Midwest Dairy Association.
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