Download This Sample
This sample is exclusively for KidsKonnect members!
To download this worksheet, click the button below to signup for free (it only takes a minute) and you'll be brought right back to this page to start the download!
Sign Me Up
Cows are cud-chewing mammals, known as ruminants. Until the 1950s, almost every family had their own cow and now, dairy cows produce more than 90% of the worldβs milk supply. Below is a list of interesting facts and information about cows.
See the fact file below for more information on cows or alternatively download our comprehensive worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.
Cow Facts
- The word βcowβ is used when referring to a single animal, rather than the collective βcattleβ. Cow can also be used when the sex of the animal is irrelevant, for example, βwhat is a cow doing on my lawn?β
- Cattle is plural and generally refers to the bovine species as a whole.
- Cows/Cattle are large, domesticated, cloven-hoofed herbivores.
- An adult female cow is referred to as a cow. Adult males are called bulls. A baby cow is called a calf. Once calves are about a year old and have been weaned onto grass, they are called weaners – this does not change if theyβre male or female.
- Cattle bred and raised for people to eat are called beef cattle.
- Certain breeds of cow, like the Friesland or Jersey cow, are kept for the milk they produce. These types of cows are called dairy cows or milking cows.
- Because male cows are not considered useful on a dairy farm, most young bulls are sold for veal and may be referred to as veal calves.
- Before milking machines were invented in 1894, farmers milked cows by hand, which was very time-consuming. Milkmaids would often do the task early in the morning.
- Today, farmers use machines and industrialized processes to milk more than 100 cows per hour.
Anatomy of a Cow
- Cattle use all of the five of their senses, but mainly vision, taste, and smell.
- Vision
- As much as 50% of a cowβs sensory information comes from vision. This makes it a cowβs dominant sense.
- Like their wild ancestors, cattle are prey animals and so their eyes are set high and wide on their heads so they have a wide field of vision for detecting predators.
- Cattle have two kinds of color receptors so they can distinguish colors with long wavelengths like yellow, orange, and red, much better than colors with shorter wavelengths, such as blue, gray, and green.
- This means that itβs not true that cows (bulls especially) become enraged when they see the color red. Itβs more likely that red cloaks used in bullfighting agitate the bull and cause it to charge.
- Taste
- Cows have around 20,000 tastebuds on their tongues that can detect sweet, salty, bitter, and sour, which means they have a well-developed sense of taste.
- Their tastebuds help cows avoid plants that are bitter (which can also be poisonous), and eat more sweet and salty plants that will provide more calories.
- Since plants donβt have enough salt for a cow, cattle will use their smell and taste to find it in other sources, like mud or salt blocks provided by farmers.
- Smell
- Typically, a cow will use its sense of smell to add extra information receive from other senses like vision or hearing. Like many animals, however, smell is important to reproduction and other animal behaviors.
Cow digestive system
- Cattle are ruminants, meaning their digestive system is highly specialized to allow the consumption of difficult-to-digest plants as food.
- Cattle have one stomach with four compartments;
- The rumen, which is the largest compartment and is used for storage
- The reticulum, which is the smallest compartment, is known as the “honeycomb”
- The omasum whose main function is to absorb water and nutrients from the digestible feed.
- The abomasum, which is like the human stomach, is referred to as the “true stomach”.
- Cattle regurgitate and then re-chew their food.
- Regurgitated food is known as cud.
- When a cow is eating, food is first swallowed without being chewed. It will then go to the rumen for storage until the cow can find a quiet place to lie down and continue digesting the grass.
- The cow then regurgitates some of the food, now called cud, into its mouth, where it is given a really good chew by big, flat molar teeth. After the cud is chewed into very small pieces, it is swallowed and digested again in the rumen by specialized bacteria.
- The bacteria are important for breaking down a plantβs cellulose cell wall so that carbohydrates and fatty acids can be extracted to give the cow energy to live and grow.
Adults and Young
- Adults’ size varies significantly among breeds and sex.
- An average cow has an overall height of 62.0″-69.0″ (1.6-1.8 m), height of 54.0″-60.0″ (1.37-1.5 m), and body length of 92.0″-103.0″ (2.3-2.6 m).
- The weight of adult cattle varies greatly, again depending on the breed.
- Bulls are larger than cows of the same breed by up to a few hundred kilograms.
- Smaller breeds, such as Dexter and Jersey adults, range between 300 and 500 kg (600 and 1,000 lb).
- British breeds, such as Hereford, Angus, and Shorthorn, mature at 500 to 900 kg (1,000 to 2,000 lb)
- In the United States, the average weight of beef cattle has steadily increased, especially since the 1970s, requiring the building of new slaughterhouses able to handle larger carcasses.
- The gestation period for a cow is about nine months long.
- Bulls become fertile at about seven months of age.
- Cows can be bred from about 21 months of age.
- A baby cow is called a calf.
- A newborn calf’s size can vary among breeds, but a typical calf weighs 25 to 45 kg (55 to 99 lb).
- Calves should be completely weaned off milk at 8-10 weeks but still need water.
Milk and Meat
- The major constituents of cows’ milk are water (87.4%) and milk solids (12.6%), which includes vitamins, minerals, carbohydrate, fat, and protein.
- Cows’ milk is known to contain many nutrients, including varying concentrations of fat and water-soluble vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and salts.
- Cows produce most of the milk that people drink.
- A cow must have a calf in order to produce milk.
- Dairy cows provide 90% of the worldβs milk supply with some cows producing over 25 gallons of milk each day.
- Cow’s milk has long been used for cheese making and most of the British classics are made from the cow
- 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.
- In prehistoric times, humans hunted animals for meat to feed themselves.
- Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity of their meat.
- Today, beef is the third most widely consumed meat in the world, after poultry and pork.
- Beef is a good source of protein and other nutrients.
- Beef can be cooked and/or preserved in many forms.
- Beef can be a healthy part of your diet but should be eaten in moderation
- As of 2018, the United States, Brazil, and China were the largest producers of beef.
Cattle and people
- Cattle dung is used to make manure or fuel.
- Cattle skin, or more accurately called hide, is used to make leather.
- In some regions, such as parts of India, cattle have religious significance.
- Cattle are the main source of greenhouse gas emissions and are responsible for around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Cow Worksheets
This bundle contains 9 ready-to-use Cow Worksheets that are perfect for students who want to learn more about one of the closest mammals to man. Cows are not just your regular farm animal. In fact, cows produce most of the milk that people drink. The best dairy cows give over 25 gallons of milk each day – that’s about 400 glasses of milk!
Download includes the following worksheets
- Cow Facts
- Quick Quiz
- Anatomy of a Cow
- The Auroch
- Cattle Farming
Cattle Breeds
- Letter Scramble
- Match the Cow
- Do Cows have Four Stomachs?
- Milk Delivery
Frequently Asked Questions
What noise do cows make?
Cows/cattle can make several different sounds including mooing, bellowing, snorting, and grunting.
Do cows eat meat?
Cows are herbivores and eat only grass. A cow will chew about 50 times in a minute, making its jaws move about 40,000 times a day.
Do cows sleep?
Cows do sleep; they typically lie down to sleep or simply to rest.
How big is a cow’s stomach?
The main stomach of a cow, the rumen, is huge. It holds up to 50 gallons of food that have been partially digested.
Are cows cattle?
All cows are cattle but not all cattle are cows. All cows are cattle because they come from the Bovinae family. Cows are females, males are bulls.
Link/cite this page
If you reference any of the content on this page on your own website, please use the code below to cite this page as the original source.
Link will appear as Cow Facts and Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, September 1, 2017
Use With Any Curriculum
These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.