Did you know that the first cow arrived in the United States in 1611 in the Jamestown colony?
The six main dairy breeds: Ayshire, Guernsey, Brown Swiss, Milking Shorthorn, Jersey and Holstein (the black and white spotted cows.)
There are dairy cows in all 50 states.
Milking machines were invented in 1984. Before that, it would take one person one hour to milk 6 cows by hand. Today, the use of a milking machine allows one person to milk about 100 cows in one hour.
90% of the world’s milk supply comes from dairy cows. Other than cows, water buffalo, camels, goats, sheep, horses and even reindeer are milked.
Did you know that all ‘cows’ are female? Only males are called bulls. Before having a calf, a cow is called a heifer. In order for a cow to produce milk, they must first have a calf.
At birth, a Jersey calf weighs about 60 pounds. At maturity it will weigh 900-1000 pounds.
The color of a Jersey cow varies from dark brown to fawn and can have some white splashed in.
A cow has 32 teeth. A cow will chew about 50 times in a minute, making their jaws move about 40,000 times a day.
The main stomach of a cow, the rumen, holds up to 50 gallons of food that has been partially digested. Referred to as cud, a cow will chew for up to eight hours a day.
A cow will spend about 8 hours a day eating and will consume about 40 pounds of food in a day.
A bathtub can hold between 30 and 50 gallons of water. Did you know that a cow can drink that much water in just one day?
With all of the eating and drinking that a cow does in one day, they will urinate about 30 gallons and produce about 60 pounds of manure. So in one year, a cow will produce about 20,100 pounds of manure – that’s 10 TONS!
A cow will stand up and lay down about fourteen times a day. Cows can sleep while they are standing up! How convenient.
Cows have great senses. They can see in color and can smell up to six miles away.