Fun Facts!

Cows (Bos Taurus) are found all over the world, they were domesticated by humans over 10,000 years ago for work, dairy and meat. There are over 1,000 breeds of cattle recognised worldwide.

It is often said that cows have four stomachs but that is not technically true. They have one very big stomach with 4 distinctive compartments that each serve a special purpose. Cows always regurgitate their food and re-chew it, this is known as 'chewing the cud'.

Cows have no upper teeth so they rip grass up with their tongue rather than bite it with teeth. A cow has 32 teeth and will chew about 40-50 times a minute, up to 8 hours a day. They can move their jaw about 40,000 times a day!

Cows eat about 40lbs of food a day and drink the equivalent of a bath full of water. An average cow produces 30lbs of urine and 65lbs of poo every day. And an average cow can produce up to 200lbs of flatus (farts and burps) a day!

A dairy cow produces around 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime. Today, farmers use machines to milk more than 100 cows per hour. Before milking machines were invented in 1894, farmers could only milk about 6 cows per hour.

The UK has 34 native breeds of cattle, of which 14 are considered rare.

Cows are sacred in India and many states do not allow them to be slaughtered. Therefore there are over 5 million stray cows roaming in cities and villages, as well as throughout the countryside.