Some fun facts about cows:
1. 1. Cows are not native to America; the first cow in America arrived in 1611 and lived in the Jamestown colony.1
2. For a long period of American history (until the 1850’s) most families had their own cow.1
3. Genetic improvements and breeding techniques have drastically changed cows over the past decades. Today, the output of one cow is ten times as great as the output for one cow previously. 1
4. Milking machines allowed farmers to improve from being able to milk only six cows per hour to more than 100 cows per hour.1
5. Cows are ruminants, which means they have four stomach compartments. When I was little, I thought that cows literally had four separate small stomachs, and I was pretty disappointed when I learned otherwise. The first compartment of the stomach, called the rumen, changes carbohydrates to volatile fatty acids that are absorbed by the animal. The second compartment, the reticulum, helps the cow regurgitate their food so they can chew the cud. The third compartment, the omasum, helps with the absorption of water and helps digest food a bit. The last compartment, the abomasum, functions like a stomach in a monogastric, secreting enzymes to digest food further.
Source: www.furrytalk.com
As seen by some of the fun facts, cows are very important to society. Without cows, we would not have milk, cheese, beef, or Penn State’s famous creamery ice cream. Both the beef and milk industries are multi-billion dollar industries worldwide. In addition, cows are used to make leather, and their manure that can be used as fertilizer. They can also be used for manual labor; they can pull carts or plows. In addition, cows are sacred animals in the Hindi religion and seen as a maternal figure; slaughtering cows is illegal in most states in India.
So the next time you see a cow, take time to appreciate how awesome cows are.
1 http://www.aipl.arsusda.gov/kc/cowfacts.html
My mother has a soft spot in her heart for cows, so of course I wanted to read this post. Cows are definitely some of the most unappreciated animals out there. They do so much for us in terms of food, drink, clothing, farming, etc. And they don’t get the credit they deserve.
Also, this post reminded me of the one time that my mother and I “saved” a cow. There is a farm near my house, and on one side of the field is a wire fence. One of the cows had decided to…well…”walk through” the fence and got himself caught in the wires in the process. My mother and I were driving past the farm and saw the poor stuck cow. We got out and helped to untangle it (although I was a little frightened that the cow would not know that we were trying to help and try to fight us). It worked fine and we went home feeling like heroes for the day. Let’s hope the cow learned not to do that again…
I love how excited you are about cows! I don’t think I knew even half these facts before I read this post so I’m certainly much more well informed now and can much more fully appreciate how awesome cows are. The fact that they have four stomach is especially interesting and definitely not very well known!
This was really enjoyable to read. Following the Hindu religion, I don’t eat cow meat nor does anyone in my family. The times I’ve visited India it was always fun to feed the cows we have. Cows really do play an integral part in most people’s diets; I would agree that cows are awesome.
Wow this post is so exciting. Cows are my fourth-favorite animals, so I was delighted to stumble upon your in-depth examinations of the bovine family. Also, I am now super-jealous of all those 19th century families who owned cows. If only I was a white 19th century American, my life would be a lot better, or at least more cow-filled.
This was so fun to read. Cows are pretty cute so it’s fun to hear these facts about them.
I thought the part about the stomach was really cool because even though I knew the cows stomach had four compartments (as apposed to the cow having four stomachs) I didn’t really know anything about the why.
–K.E. Van Develde