47 Fun Facts About Cows

How many compartments does a cow's stomach have?

Four compartments — the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum — make up a cow's single stomach, with the rumen by far the largest.

Which compartment of a cow's stomach is known as the "true stomach", the equivalent of a human's?

The rumen does the heavy lifting as a fermentation vat full of microbes, but only the abomasum works like a monogastric stomach.

The smallest compartment of a cow's stomach is nicknamed the "honeycomb". Which one is it?

Its lining really does look like honeycomb, and it is where swallowed nails and wire tend to end up.

Domestic cattle descend from which extinct wild animal?

The aurochs (Bos primigenius) is cattle's wild ancestor; mitochondrial DNA suggests the taurine line began with about 80 aurochs tamed in the Near East roughly 10,500 years ago.

The wild ancestor of cattle survived in Europe until its last cow died in a Polish forest. In what year?

The final herd in Jaktorów Forest had dwindled to just four animals by 1601, and the species was gone a generation later.

How long is a cow's pregnancy?

A cow's gestation is about nine months, around 283 days, almost exactly the length of a human pregnancy.

Cattle horns and hooves are made mainly of which protein?

Keratin, the same fibrous protein that forms human hair and fingernails, makes up the outer sheath of a cow's horns and the wall of its hooves.

Because their eyes sit on the sides of the head, cattle have a field of view of about how many degrees?

Laterally placed eyes give cattle roughly 330° of panoramic vision, but their binocular overlap is only about 30° to 50°, against around 120° in humans.

Bulls cannot actually see red. So why is a matador's muleta that colour?

Cattle are dichromatic, so it is the movement of the cloth that provokes the charge, not its colour.

About how many hours a day does a domestic cow spend asleep?

Cattle doze lightly on their feet but have to lie down for deep sleep, which is one reason cow tipping is a myth.

What is a young female bovine that has not yet had a calf called?

Once she has her first calf she graduates to being a cow; dairy farmers usually breed heifers at around 13 months old.

In the United States, what is a castrated male bovine called?

In other parts of the world older steers are called bullocks, while an intact adult male is a bull everywhere.

The female twin of a bull calf is usually infertile. What is she called?

Exposure to her brother's testosterone in the womb is what causes the infertility.

On a ranch, what is an unbranded bovine of either sex called?

The word is said to come from Texas rancher Samuel Maverick, who famously refused to brand his cattle.

What term describes cattle that are naturally born without horns?

Polled cattle are born hornless; the trait is dominant, and Aberdeen Angus, a breed that is always polled, is the best-known example.

Which shaggy Scottish breed lives in a "fold" rather than a herd?

Highland cattle are kept in folds, not herds; the breed's long, oily outer coat is the longest of any cattle breed, and Queen Elizabeth II kept a fold at Balmoral.

Which black-and-white breed dominates industrial dairy farming and is found in more than 160 countries?

Holsteins, the black-and-white dairy breed of Dutch origin, are bred in more than 160 countries; Bur-Wall Buckeye Gigi, a Wisconsin Holstein, gave 33,860 kg of milk in one year (2016).

Which island banned foreign cattle from 1789 to 2008 to protect its small brown dairy breed?

Jersey banned cattle imports from 1789 to 2008 to keep its Jersey breed pure; the small cows weigh only 350 to 400 kg and give milk rich in butterfat.

Humped, droopy-eared cattle of the species Bos indicus, well suited to tropical heat, are known as what?

Zebu (Bos indicus) were domesticated separately from European cattle, in the Indus Valley; about 75 zebu breeds exist, split fairly evenly between Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

Which humped American breed, bred from Indian stock, became Australia's most numerous by 2000?

The Brahman was developed in the USA from Indian zebu stock and thrives in Australia's tropical north; crossing it with Angus produced the Brangus and with Hereford the Braford.

In 1873, George Grant brought the first Aberdeen Angus bulls to America. To which state?

The breed comes from the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine and Angus in north-eastern Scotland and is solid black or red.

Which town became the first great railhead for Texas cattle drives when Joseph McCoy opened stockyards in 1867?

Abilene, Kansas, on the Kansas Pacific railway, was McCoy's choice; the route there from Texas became the Chisholm Trail, and about 35,000 head shipped out in 1867.

Texas Longhorns descend from cattle brought to the Americas by which Europeans?

Spanish colonists brought the first cattle to the Americas, starting with Columbus's second voyage in 1493; their semi-feral descendants in Texas evolved into the drought-hardy Longhorn.

Which Italian breed is the world's tallest and heaviest, with bulls up to 1.8 m at the shoulder?

The Chianina of Tuscany is the tallest and heaviest cattle breed, with bulls up to 1.8 m at the shoulder and well over 1,200 kg; its meat is the traditional basis of bistecca alla fiorentina.

The extreme "double muscling" of Belgian Blue cattle is caused by a mutation in which gene?

A deletion in the myostatin gene removes a brake on muscle growth; the resulting muscling narrows the cow's birth canal, so Belgian Blue calves are commonly delivered by Caesarean.

Kobe beef comes from Tajima cattle, a strain of which Wagyu breed?

Tajima cattle are a bloodline of the Japanese Black, which accounts for over 90% of all Wagyu; the fine marbling prized in Kobe beef is called sashi.

Legend blames Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern for starting which 1871 disaster?

The Great Chicago Fire of October 1871 was pinned on the O'Leary cow by reporter Michael Ahern, who admitted in 1893 that he had invented the story.

In what year did the city council formally exonerate Mrs. O'Leary and her cow?

The Chicago City Council exonerated Catherine O'Leary and her cow in October 1997, 126 years after a fire that killed about 300 people and destroyed some 17,000 buildings.

In February 1930, a Guernsey named Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to do what?

Elm Farm Ollie flew from Bismarck, Missouri, to St. Louis on 18 February 1930, the first cow to fly in an airplane; she was milked mid-air and the milk parachuted over the city.

Elsie the Cow became the advertising mascot of which dairy company in 1936?

Borden introduced Elsie in 1936; the first live Elsie was picked from Borden's rotary milking parlour exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair and is buried in Plainsboro, New Jersey.

Elsie the Cow's cartoon husband, Elmer the Bull, went on to become the mascot of which product?

Elmer, created in 1940, was lent to Borden's chemical division, and from the early 1950s his face fronted Elmer's Glue-All, the white glue in the orange-capped bottle.

Which restaurant chain's advertising features cows holding misspelled "Eat Mor Chikin" signs?

Chick-fil-A's 'Eat Mor Chikin' cows first appeared on an Atlanta billboard in 1995, created by The Richards Group; the chicken in the chain's logo is named Doodles.

Pauline Wayne, the last cow to graze at the White House, belonged to which president?

Pauline Wayne belonged to William Howard Taft; in 1911, en route to a Milwaukee dairy show, she was mistakenly routed into the Chicago stockyards and rescued just before slaughter.

Blosom of Orangeville, Illinois, the tallest cow ever recorded, stood how tall at the withers?

Blosom, a Holstein, measured 190 cm (74.8 in) at the withers in May 2014; Guinness confirmed her as the tallest cow ever, and she died in January 2015.

Which protein makes up about 80% of the protein in cow's milk?

Casein makes up about 80% of the protein in cow's milk, with whey proteins such as lactoglobulin the remaining 20%; it curdles with rennet or acid to form cheese curd.

"Mad cow disease" (BSE) is caused by what kind of infectious agent?

BSE is caused by a prion, a misfolded protein with no DNA or RNA; the first confirmed case was in the UK in 1986, and some 4 million British cattle were culled.

In Norse mythology, the primeval cow Auðumbla suckled which being?

Ymir was the ancestor of the frost giants, and the cow herself fed by licking salty ice.

The sacred Apis bull of ancient Egypt was regarded as a living manifestation of which god?

The Apis bull, kept at Memphis, was worshipped as the living herald of the creator god Ptah; on its death it was mummified and identified with Osiris as Osiris-Apis.

In the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle", the cow jumped over what?

In the rhyme, first printed around 1765 in Mother Goose's Melody, the cow jumped over the moon while the dish ran away with the spoon.

In Munro Leaf's 1936 picture book, what would Ferdinand the bull rather do than fight?

Ferdinand would rather sit under his cork tree and smell the flowers; Franco's Spain banned the book, Nazi Germany burned it, and Disney's 1938 short won an Academy Award.

Babe the Blue Ox is the giant companion of which American folk hero?

The name Babe was given to the ox in a 1916 lumber-company advertising campaign by William B. Laughead.

Cow chip throwing was popularized in 1970 by an annual championship in Beaver, a town in which state?

Beaver, Oklahoma, styles itself the Cow Chip Throwing Capital of the World and has held the championship each April since 1970 as part of its Cimarron Territory Celebration.

In rural South Asia, dried cow dung cakes called "upla" or "kanda" are traditionally used as what?

Dried dung cakes are burned as cooking fuel across rural South Asia, giving a slow, smoky heat; fresh dung is also mixed with mud to plaster and smooth floors.

Farmers make cattle swallow a magnet that stays inside them for life. What does it prevent?

Grazing cattle swallow stray nails and wire, and the magnet holds the metal harmlessly instead of letting it puncture the gut wall.

Cattle have no upper front teeth. What do they have instead?

They press grass against the pad with the lower incisors and tear it, then re-chew it later as cud.

About how much methane does a single cow belch out in a year?

A single cow belches out roughly 100 kg of methane a year; FAO's GLEAM model put cattle at about 7% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions in 2015.

What title does the overall winner of Valais's Hérens cow fights receive?

The overall winner of the Hérens finale at Aproz is crowned 'reine des reines', queen of queens; winners collect ceremonial bells, and organised fights date back to the 1920s.