Cow Facts

Cow Facts

1. An udder (the organ on the underside of the cow that stores the milk) can hold 25-50 pounds of milk! If you are 5-6 years old or younger, that one part of the cow may weigh more than many of you! In the show ring, the cow’s udder counts for 40% of the total score.2. A heifer, or young female cow, usually has her first calf (baby) at age 2, after being pregnant for nine months (hey, that’s how long it takes for human mothers to deliver, too!). She will then start giving milk, working for about 5-6 years as a dairy cow. 3. A newborn calf can walk on its own just one hour after it is born!4. A cow produces about 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime!5. Milking machines gently suck the milk from the cow’s udder using a vacuum.They are a very fast way to milk cows. A farmer can hand milk about 6 cows per hour, but can machine milk 100 cows per hour! Cows must be milked every 12 hours, or two times a day.6. Dairy cows are usually wedge-shaped with their rear (udder)end much broader than their front end. Can you see why this is a good body shape for milking?7. The lactation period, or the length of time a cow can produce milk before having another calf, is 305 days.In 305 days, a good dairy cow can produce 2,326 gallons or 20,000  pounds or 37,216  glasses of milk!8. Prize-winning dairy cows can make even more milk than that! In the dairy shows at NAILE, special awards are given for highest milk production in pounds.9. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) invented the process of heating milk to a high temperature in order to kill harmful bacteria. The process, still used today, is called pasteurization.10. A cow(or bull) has only one stomach, but the stomach has four compartments and 32 teeth (our stomach only has one).The first compartment is called the rumen. All that chewing and chewing that cattle do is called ruminating or chewing cud. After they have swallowed their food, they bring it back into their mouth to chew it again. Ruminating and sending the food through the four compartments makes it possible for cattle to eat foods like hay and grass. We couldn’t eat what cows eat, because our stomachs can’t digest or process that kind of food.11. They drink 29 gallons of water each day. That’s about a bathtub full!12. The average cow produces enough milk each day to fill six one-gallon jugs, about 55 pounds of milk.13. It takes more than 21 pounds of whole milk to make one pound of butter.14. The fastest growing variety of cheese produced in the U.S. is Hispanic-style soft cheese.15. All 50 states in the United States have dairy farms.16. The natural yellow color of butter comes mainly from the beta-carotene found in the grass cows eat.17. A typical dairy cow weighs 1400 pounds and consumes about 50 pounds of dry matter each day.18. Cheddar cheese is the most popular natural cheese in the U.S.19. It takes 12 pounds of whole milk to make one gallon of ice cream.20. Large ice cream producing states include California, Indiana, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Minnesota.21. Super Bowl Sunday rates as the number one day for pizza consumption.22. Cows have an acute sense of smell, and can smell something up to six miles away. 23. It takes more cows to produce milk annually for Pizza Hut cheese (about 170,000)than there are people living in Green Bay, Wisconsin.24. The average buyer purchases cheese 15 times at retail each year.25. McDonald’s uses approximately four million gallons of low-fat vanilla yogurt each year in its Fruit ‘n’ Yogurt Parfait.26. Vanilla is America’s favorite ice cream flavor.27. Tank trucks for transporting fluid mild were first introduced in 1914.28. Each person in America eats an average of 46 slices of pizza a year.29. More ice cream is sold on Sunday than on any other day of the week.30. Plastic milk bottles were first introduced in the United States in 1967. 31. More than 1000 new dairy products are introduced every year.32. A cow has four stomachs and 32 teeth.33. About 300 varieties of cheese are sold in the U.S.
* Butterfat – the fat in milk* Cream – the yellowish part of milk that contains 18-40% butterfat* Curds - the thick part of coagulated milk. Most cheese is made from fermented milk curd.(fermented means stuff is added to it to cause it to change form)* Homogenize – to blend the butterfat in milk by preheating it and forcing it through a tiny hole.By reducing the size of the butterfat articles, they won’t rise to the top anymore.* Pasteurization – a heat treatment to kill germs in homogenized milk.* Whey - the watery part of milk. Ricotta is one cheese made from whey instead of milk curds.* Ice cream – a sweetened, frozen food containing cream or butterfat and flavorings* Ice milk - a sweetened, frozen food containing skim milk and flavorings* Low-fat milk – milk that contains only 1-2% butterfat* Skim milk – or fat free milk (milk with less than 0.5% fat)* Sour cream – a product made from cream and bacteria that form lactic acid* Sweetened condensed milk -  pasteurized milk with sugar solution added; much of water is then extracted and product is sealed in containers for long, room-temperature storage* Whole milk – milk containing 3-4% butterfat (no butterfat has been removed)* Yogurt – a fermented, semisolid food made from milk and the cultures of two certain bacteria(fermented means stuff is added to it to cause it to change form); sugar, dry milk solids, and flavorings are often added to it.

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