 The
average internal body temperature
of a cow is 102 degrees Fahrenheit and the blood temperature is
105, so if we are feeding calves then we heat the calves milk up
to 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
On
the top front of their mouths, cows have a tough pad of skin instead
of teeth.
Cows
have a total of 32 teeth, 8 incisors on the bottom front and 6 strong
molars on the top and bottom back.
 No
two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.
A
cow has four stomachs. Cows regurgitate their food and rechew the
cud to help digestion. A cow spends an average of 8 hours a day
eating.
A
cow is fully grown at three years old.
The cow must be a mother before she will produce milk.
Jersey
cows give an average of 21 litres of milk a day and Holstein Friesian
give an average of 32 litres of milk a day. The jersey milk is creamier
with 6% butterfat. Holsteins produce milk of around 3.8% butterfat.
 A
cow gives in her lifetime enough milk to fill 200,000 glasses, and
gives 9600 litres for Holstein, 6400 litres for Jerseys of milk
every year.
Cows
eat 4 kg of alkalage (our special mix of wholecrop) and 35 kg of
silage. 45 kg in total of feed a day, and drink a bath tub (20 gallons)
full of water a day.
A
cow spends up to 13 hours a day lying down on their mattress covered
beds.
There
are 207 bones in a cow's body.
 Dairy
cows can produce 125 lbs of saliva a day (must be where some of
the bath water goes!).
In
one day, a cow's jaw moves a total of 41,360 times.
The
Sanskrit (Ancient Hindu) word for "war" means "desire
for more cow".
It
is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs, because cows'
knees can't bend
properly to walk back down.
Cows
can hear higher and fainter sounds than humans and have an acute
sense of smell-sometimes detecting a scent over six miles away.
 Mackie's
have Holstein (black and white) and Jersey (yellowish-brown) cows.
The other major cow breeds are Scandinavian Reds and British Friesians,
Guernsey (tan and white), Brown Swiss (dark brown or gray), Ayrshire
(white and red) and Milking Shorthorn (red or red roan).
Jerseys
are known for their quiet temperament, ease of calving, early maturity,
and great ability to convert roughage to milk. Holstein Friesians
are known for high milk production.
 The
Mackie's slurry lagoon holds 14 million litres and is used to fertilize
the fields through 4 miles of pipe. Research is under way to find
suitable biogas equipment to make use of the gas from the cows manure.
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