More foods are made with wheat than any other cereal grain. In 1997, Kansas produced 492.2 million bushels of wheat, enough to make 35.9 Billion loaves of bread. Winter wheat not only resists freezing temperatures during winter, it needs the cold. One bushel of wheat contains approximately 1 million individual kernels. Kansas ranks first among the states in wheat produced, wheat stored, wheat milled into flour, and in the production of wheat gluten and wheat starch.
Wheat is the only grain with sufficient gluten content to make a raised or leavened loaf of bread.
A modern combine can harvest 1,000 bushels of wheat per hour. Between 60 and 63 million acres of wheat are harvested each year in the United States. One bushel of wheat yields enough flour for 73 one-pound loaves of white bread.