COW

Newborn Calf

The average Holstein calf weighs from 90 to 100 pounds at birth. A newborn calf is fed colostrum milk for the first three days of life. Colostrum is special because it gives the calf extra nutrients to help the calf get off to a good, healthy start. Calves are usually fed milk or milk replacer starting at 3 days of age. They are also fed calf starter, a grain, beginning at 7 to 10 days of age. They are 4 to 8 weeks old when they are weaned from milk.

Six Month Old Heifer

The six month old heifer is usually fed silage, hay, and grain. These heifers may also graze (eat grass) in a pasture. Holstein heifers weigh about 400 pounds at this age. Dairy farmers want their Holstein heifers to gain 1.6 to 1.8 pounds each day.

Yearling

This heifer is called a yearling because she is over one year old. She weighs about 700 pounds and still has quite a bit of growing to do before she enters the milking herd in another year.

Two Year Old

Dairy farmers refer to animals like this one as a "first-calf heifer." This cow is two years old and recently had a calf for the first time. She is now producing milk and will keep on growing for the next few years before she is fully mature. She weighs about 1,200 pounds.

 

Mature Cow

This adult dairy cow weighs over 1,500 pounds. She is five years old and just had her fourth calf. She can eat over 100 pounds of feed a day and can produce over 12 gallons of milk a day during the early part of her lactation. A mature cow produces about 25 percent more milk than a first calf heifer.

AMAZING FACTS ABOUT COW

1.   There are over 800 different cattle breeds recognized worldwide. Beef breed are raised for their meat and dairy breed are raised to product milk. At clover meadows beef, we raised Angus-based cattle, which is a beef breeds.

2.Cow don’t eat meat-ever. They’re always “vegetarian fed”.

3.  cows can seen also 360 degrees. This near-panoramic view lets them watch for predators from all angles. However, they don’t see well straight in front of them so they will typically turn their head to look at you.

4. cows have an acute sense of smell and can detect odors up to six miles away.

5.  Cows are very social and don’t like to be alone. If one is isolated, its usually because she is sick or about to give birth.

6.  Cows have no upper front teeth. They press their sharp bottom teeth against the top hard palate of their mouth to cute blades of grass.

7.  A cows has 32 teeth and will chew about 40-50 times a minute.

8.  A cow will chew for up to eight hours a day.

9.  Cows move their jaws about 40,000 times a day.

10.  Cows spend about 10 hours a day lying down.

11.  Cows will stand up and lay down about fourteen times a day.

12.  Cows can sleep while they’re standing.

13.  The first cow arrived in the U.S. in 1611 in Jamestown.

14.  There are approximately 98 million cows in the U.S.

15.  The U.S. cattle herd size is shrinking. The total cows in the US are at their lowest level since 1952.

16.  cows are ruminants, which are cud-chewing mammals. Other ruminant animals are sleep, giraffe, goat and deer, just to name a few.

17.  The main stomach of a cow, the rumen, holds up to 50 gallons of food that have been partially  digested. Top put that in perspective, aa bathtub can usually hold 30-50 gallons of water.

18.  A cow will consume about 40 pounds of food in a day.

19.  Cows can see color. But, when you see a matador waving a red flag at a blue (a male cow), the bull charges because of the flag movement, not the color red.

20.  The average body temperature of a cow is 102 degrees Fahrenheit.

21.  In the winter, cows thick skin and hair is a natural that protects them from the bitter cold.

22.  Cows have 4 digestive compartments in one stomach – the rumen (this is where the cud comes from); the reticulum; omasum; and abomasum(this is sort of like a human’s stomach)

23.  In the 1850s nearly every family in the U.S. had its own cow.

24.  George Washington’s dentist made him dentures out of cow, hippopotamus and walrus teeth. The hamburger debuted at the 1904 world’s fair in St. louis.

25.  Almost 2,000 quarter-pound hamburgers can be made from the ground beef in one cow.