Cows

I like cows.

I used to milk cows.
I have been stepped on, squished, kicked, peed and pooped on (AKA: Christened).
Their tongues are like raspy sandpaper. When feeding they would find ways to scrape their tongues across unguarded skin.

Cows can be pretty dumb by human standards and in comparison to other livestock. IMO- They have the intelligence of potatoes, and taste good with potatoes. What more would one want from their future dinner? (I am sorry right now to all those anti cow eaters that may be reading this I can't help but love steak it's my favorite. I am a die hard member of PETA- People Eating Tasty Animals. No hard feelings ok?)

However cows can recognize up to 100 other cows in their herd. I guess that makes them pretty smart when they aren't oozing slime from every orifice. Which is always.

The first cow in America arrived in Jamestown colony in 1611. Until the 1850's, nearly every family had its own cow. The first regular shipment of milk by railroad was between Orange County, New York, and New York City and began in 1841.

In 1856, Gail Borden invented the condensed milk process. This process removed some of the water from milk so it would take up less space. Refrigeration came into use in 1880, and the first pasteurizing machine was introduced in 1895.

Dairying has improved through the years. Today, one cow can produce the milk that it once took 10 cows to produce. Before milking machines were invented in 1894, farmers could only milk about 6 cows per hour. Today, farmers use machines to milk more than 100 cows per hour.
It takes 30 gallons of milk to make 1 pound of butter!
The calcium in soy milk is not as usable in the human body as calcium in milk from a cow.

Cows are ruminants, which are cud chewing mammals. Sheep and camels also are ruminants.
A cow chews it's cud (Cud is regurgitated, partially digested food) for up to 8 hours each day.
Cows drink about a bathtub full of water and eat around 40 pounds of food a day.

Contrary to popular belief, cows do not have 4 stomachs; they have 4 digestive compartments: The rumen holds up to 50 gallons of partially digested food. This is where cud comes from. Good bacteria in the rumen helps digest the cows food and provides protein. The reticulum, also called the hardware stomach because if cows eat hardware (like a piece of fencing or other metal), it will often lodge here causing no further damage. The omasum is like a filter. The abomasum is like our stomach

Cows can jump. I recall watching Sebastian as a weanling chase some poor cows around in the pasture until they jumped the fence with very little effort. The cows no longer got turned out with the horses because of that..

Someday I will have a cow. It might just be a big fat angus. I might just name it t-bone because thats how I roll.