10 Things About Cows That Will Amaze You

Spread the love
Our fifth generation Ed Parker with one of his Herefords.
Our fifth-generation farmer Ed Parker with one of his Herefords. Moo!

by Laura Parker Roerden

1. Researchers have discovered that cows tend to face either magnetic north or south when grazing or resting, regardless of the sun’s position or the wind’s direction. Why cows do this remains a mystery.

2. Cows have regional accents. After a group of dairy farmers noticed their cows had different moos, language specialists determined that cows in herds generally share the same sound to their vocalizations. Check out Jo-Erl Farm’s cows Massachusetts accent here. (Okay, with a little RI thrown in there; I think I heard a “cawl” that rhymes with Pawl in there.)

3. You can’t “tip” a cow. Really. A 2005 study at the University of British Columbia concluded that tipping a cow would require an exertion of 2,910 newtons of force; meaning that a 4’7” cow pushed at an angle of 23.4 degrees relative to the ground would require the equivalent strength of 4.43 people to tip the poor thing over.

4. Cows have been trained to play football in Moscow circuses.

5. Researchers have found that if you name a cow and treat her as an individual, she will produce almost 500 more pints of milk a year.

6. Cows spend 10 to 12 hours a day lying down.

7. Researchers have confirmed that cows have favorite friends and become stressed when they are separated.

cowssmall8. Cows have almost panoramic, 360-degree vision, allowing them to watch for predators or humans from all angles. Translation: It’s nearly impossible to sneak up on them, would-be cow tippers.

9. A cow can climb up the stairs, but cannot climb down. This is because her knees cannot bend properly.

10. Dairy cows can produce up to 125 lbs of saliva a day. (Ewww.)

By the way, I will never, ever forget the look on my father’s face when I told him about cow tipping. But I’ll save that for another post.

Hay, before you go, got a few moo minutes for some cow humor?

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Published by Laura Parker Roerden

Laura Parker Roerden shares a love of what nature can teach us. Writer, public speaker and supportor of youth to boldly know and save the wilds. She is the founding director of Ocean Matters and a fourth generation farmer and thinks today’s young people are reason to be hopeful about the many environmental problems facing us. She lives on a family farm in Massachusetts with her husband, three boys, and an assortment of fruit trees and farm animals.

One thought on “10 Things About Cows That Will Amaze You

Tell us what you think!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: