Fascinating Cattle Facts

Raising cattle can be a great deal of work. The breed, class, and type of cattle vary and each type of cattle requires different types of management. While beef cattle are generally raised to live with minimal management and to raise calves that are almost always sold for beef, dairy cows are raised almost exclusively for milk.

Whether you raise cattle as a hobby, run a sophisticated cattle operation, or are merely curious about animals in general, what follows are some fun facts about cattle you may or may not know! So sit back and soak up some of the more fascinating facts about cattle!

• Instead of lapping up water, cattle use a sucking action to drink.
• Cattle possess a panoramic view with the ability to see almost 360-degrees.
• Many people believe that cows are curious, hold grudges, and even babysit for one another!
• Cattle are considered sacred in a number of world religions.
• The City of Boston is believed to have been created along cow paths.
• The heaviest bull was an Italian breed, Chianina, weighing in at almost four thousand pounds.
• Cows do NOT have four stomachs (contrary to popular belief), however, the stomach of a cow is divided into four parts which are arranged for the more efficient digestion of grains and grasses. The largest compartment is the rumen. The other three compartments are the reticulum, omasum, and abomasum.
• Each day, cattle eat approximately 40 pounds of food and drink 30 gallons of water. Cattle feed on things like grass, grains, alfalfa hay, cracked corn, legumes, or specialized livestock feed.
• Almost eight hours of a cow’s day is spent chewing their cud, six hours are spent eating, and four hours are spent sleeping.
• The gestation period of a cow is nine months.
• A cow will walk for miles to locate her missing calf.
• Cattle are believed to have been domesticated more than 5,000 years ago.
• The first cow arrived in the United States in 1611.
• Dairy cows provide 90 percent of the world’s supply of milk.
• Cows have 32 teeth.
• More than 99 percent of all dairy farms are family owned.
• Milking machines were invented in 1894. Before that time, farmers milked about six cows per hour.
• Cattle have twenty-two thousand genes and 80 percent of those are shared with humans.
• Cows do more than moo. Calves bawl and bulls bellow.

With more than 800 breeds of cattle, this list is just the beginning!