Did you know?

  • The most common breed of dairy cow in Northern Ireland are Holstein - Friesians (also known as black and whites because of their distinct colour markings)
  • No two cows have the exact same colour markings
  • Cows are herbivores which means they only eat plants and grass
  • A cow eats approximately 100kg of grass a day
  • Cows use their long tongues to twist grass up from the ground
  • Cows have 32 teeth for chewing grass (which is the same amount as the average human!)
  • Cows have four stomachs to digest their food
  • When cows eat, small amounts of grass are brought back into the mouth and chewed, this is called 'chewing the cud'
  • A cow drinks about 60 litres of water a day
  • Each time a cow has a calf she produces milk. The milk comes when the calf is born and the cow continues to produce milk for about 300 days
  • Cows can be milked two or three times a day and will be milked on average 300 days a year
  • Each cow can produce over 20 litres of milk each day