Go To Cowfest! - Snowmobile Forum: Your #1 Snowmobile Forum

98xc600racer · 06-16-2006, 04:21 PM

Some reasons to g to cowfest:
# It takes around 3,000 cows to supply the 22,000 footballs, the NFL uses every season.
# The average cow's temperature is 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
# A cow can't vomit.
# Her intestines can get up to 170 feet.
# Her liver weighs 10 to 12 pounds, and the kidney's average 20 pounds each.
# From a cow's gelatin, we get photographic film.
# 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.
# There are 10,354,979 cows that give milk in the US. Of these, one fifth are in Wisconsin
# The average California cow produces 19,825 pounds of milk each year, more milk per cow than any other state in the nation. That's enough for 128 people to have a glass of milk every day of an entire year!
# There are more than 800,000 cows producing milk in California.
# The large, black and white Holstein is the most common. Other breeds include Guernsey's, Jerseys, Brown Swiss, Ayrshires, and Milking Shorthorns.
# When a Holstein cow is milking, she weighs between 1,100 and 1,500 pounds.
# A Jersey cow weighs between 700 and 1,000 pounds.
# No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.
# The cow must be a mother before she will produce milk.
# A newborn Holstein calf weighs about 100 pounds and can walk within one hour after birth!
# A one year old female calf is called a heifer. She weighs between 450 and 500 pounds.
# A cow has one stomach with four sections.
# Cows regurgitate their food and rechew the cud to help digestion. A cow spends up to 8 hours a day eating.
# Milk is rich in protein which helps build your muscles, and calcium which strengthens your bones.
# If you're between 1 and 12 years old, you should have 3 servings of milk dairy products every day.
# Teenagers need even more and should have 4 or more servings of dairy foods each day.
# Adults should have 2 or more servings of dairy per day.
# Cows live to on average 6 to 7 years.
# Cows give 60 lb. of milk a day.
# Cows eat 100 lb. of feed a day, 20 lb. of grain, and drink a bath tub full of water a day.
# Cows can weigh 1,350 lb., and 85 lb. at birth.
# A cow spends 13 hours a day lying down and up to 8 hours a day eating.
# A cow is full grown at three years old, and produces milk at two years old.
# A cow gives in her lifetime enough milk to fill 200,000 glasses, and gives 18,000 lb. of milk every year.
# There are 207 bones in a cow's body.
# The oldest cow ever recorded was a Dremon cow named "Big Bertha" that died 3 months short of her 49th birthday on New Years Eve, 1993.
# Big Bertha also holds the record for lifetime breeding as she produced 39 calves.
# The heaviest live birth of a calf is 225 lbs for a British Friesian cow in 1961.
# The highest lifetime production of milk for a single cow is 465,224 lbs by the cow named No. 289.
# The greatest amount of milk produce in one year was 59,298 lbs by a Holstein cow named Robthom Suzet Paddy.
# The greatest amount of milk produced during a single day was 241 lbs by a cow named Urbe Blanca.
# Dairy cows can produce 125 lbs of saliva a day.
# Dairy cows can produce up to 200 lbs of farts and flatus (burps) a day!
# The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows."
# Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink."
# It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs, because a cows' knees can't bend properly to walk back down.
# There are (as of 1988) 98,990,000 cows in the USA.
# Texas has the most with over 13 million cows.

The oldest cow ever recorded was a Dremon named "Big Bertha" that died 3 months shy of her 49th birthday on New Years Eve, 1993.
"Big Bertha also holds the record for lifetime breeding as she produced 39 calves.
The heaviest live birth of a calf is 225 lbs for a British Friesian cow in 1961.
The highest lifetime yield of milk for a single cow is 465,224 lbs by the creatively named cow No. 289.
The greatest yield for one lactation (365 days) is 59,298 lbs by a Holstein cow named Robthom Suzet Paddy.
The highest milk yield for a single day is an unbelievable 241 lbs by a cow named Urbe Blanca.
Dairy cows can produce 125 lbs of saliva a day?
Fast food hamburgers come from culled dairy cattle?
Dairy cows can produce up to 200 lbs of flatus (farts and burps)

98xc600racer · 06-16-2006, 04:22 PM

Cows' milk is the liquid secreted by the mammary glands of female cows for the nourishment of their calves. To produce milk, the cow must become pregnant and give birth.

The image of dairy cows living an idyllic life, happily munching away on grass in open green fields is, sadly, far from being a reality. Most dairy cows suffer terribly during their unnaturally short intense lives. Dairy farming is the single largest agricultural sector in Britain. Animals are viewed and, therefore, treated as milk-producing machines - units of production, being constantly manipulated to increase efficiency. Holstein and Friesian are the most common breeds in the UK.
How are dairy cows kept?

Most dairy cows graze on pasture during spring and summer months and are housed indoors in cowsheds during the winter. The practice of keeping dairy cows indoors for most of the year is increasing. In some cases, cows are kept indoors all year - this is known as zero-grazing.
How much milk does a dairy cow produce?

Dairy cows are commonly referred to as the most over-worked of all farm animals, forced to produce higher and higher milk yields over the past 50 years - 119% over all breeds. Dairy cows now produce 20-50 litres of milk each day - approximately ten times as much milk as her calf would suckle.
How do dairy cows keep producing milk?

The modern dairy cow must remain lactating, which means being in a constant cycle of pregnancy. She is first impregnated, usually artificially, at 15-18 months, giving birth nine months later when she is just over two years old. After about 12 hours her calf is taken away from her forever, so that her milk can be extracted and sold for human consumption. Separation of mother and infant causes acute anxiety and suffering to both animals - calves can be heard calling for their mothers long after they have been separated. Impregnated again, just two to three months after each calving, cows are simultaneously lactating and pregnant for at least seven months of the year. They will produce up to 10,000 litres of milk during each lactation.

Often cows have only 2-4 calves before becoming 'worn out', either through chronic health problems or infertility, and are sent for slaughter, often for low-grade meat such as burgers. In the UK, because of BSE regulations, no cow over 30 months old is used for food.
What happens to the calves?

Female calves may be kept for milk-production. However, male (bull) dairy calves are an unwanted by-product of the milk-production industry. Unwanted by the farmer, they are often shot or killed by electrocution within a few days of birth and used in baby food, cheese and pie ingredients or for dog food.
Do dairy cows suffer?

The demand for the massive over-production of milk has had severe welfare implications for dairy cows and has resulted in a number of so-called production diseases.
Mastitis

Mastitis is a painful bacterial infection of the udder that causes inflammation and swelling. The udder becomes hard and hot with an abnormal discharge. Studies show that over one-third of the UK dairy herd suffers from mastitis. The cow is often lame in one or both hind legs with swollen joints. Body temperature can be high and in some cases pregnant cows will abort or produce a stunted calf. Mastitis can lead to depressed appetite, dehydration and severe diarrhoea. It can be fatal.

Poor hygiene in cubicle houses and poorly designed and maintained milking machines are major contributors. Milking occurs two to three times per day and is fully mechanised. Automated milking machines extract milk by a method known as vacuum pulsation. This can weaken tissue and make the teats more prone to infections like mastitis.

The financial cost of mastitis to farmers is often high, with millions of doses of antibiotics (often penicillin) being used to treat it every year. The cost to cows in terms of pain and suffering is much harder to quantify.
Lameness

A cow's udders can be so huge and swollen that they force her hind legs apart, causing a distortion of the hind limbs. Her foot becomes predisposed to damage and inflammation causing considerable suffering and pain.

She is also often forced to stand with her hind feet in the passageway behind the cubicle where manure and urine collect. This can soften the cow's hooves and encourages infection.

Yield-boosting starchy high-protein feeds that increase milk output can lead to ruminal acidosis, too much acid in the cow's rumen. This in turn leads to inflammatory substances being released into the blood, which supplies the sensitive laminae of the cow's feet. The feet become hot, swollen and inflamed, causing and exacerbating lameness.

Scientific surveys have shown a mean annual incidence of lameness of over 50%, with practically all cows showing signs of foot damage by the time they are slaughtered.
BSE

Over 100,000 cases of Bovine Spongiform Encepholopathy (BSE) have been confirmed in the UK and, as most animals are slaughtered before they are old enough to show any symptoms, the true number of infected animals could be much higher.
Other diseases

Dairy cows can also suffer from a range of other diseases. These can include ketosis, milk fever, grass staggers, viral pneumonia, salmonellosis, bovine virus diarrhoea, brucellosis and endometritis. Most of these diseases result in terrible suffering. They are caused and exacerbated by the cows being pushed too hard to produce huge milk yields.
Artificial breeding techniques

Up to 75% of dairy cows in the UK are impregnated by artificial insemination (AI). An increasing number are being bred using a procedure known as embryo transfer. This is so painful that, when being undertaken, the law requires that an epidural anaesthetic be administered. Embryo transfer is used to multiply quickly the 'highest quality' cows. These cows are given drugs to cause 'superovulation', so that their oocytes (egg cells) can be retrieved and used for embryo transfer to lower quality surrogate mothers.
How long is a dairy cow's life?

Cows that do not produce enough milk are often killed after only one lactation. Other cows may be killed if they are not easy to handle, become ill or have calving problems.

By the time she is just five years old, she is worn out by the strain of constant production and is slaughtered as a 'spent' or 'cast' dairy cow. She may be so run- down and emaciated that her back and hip bones protrude. A cow's natural lifespan could be as much as 25 years.
How are dairy cows killed?

Most cows are slaughtered by throat-cutting (called sticking) following stunning using a captive bolt pistol. The captive bolt pistol is fired into the cow's head and penetrates her brain. However, the captive bolt pistol does not always successfully stun the animal. Mis-stunning causes considerable distress, with the animal still conscious during throat-cutting.

Because of BSE, no cattle older than 30 months are permitted to go into the human food chain. Instead, they are killed and burned and their remains stored in giant warehouses around the country.
What is BST?

BST, or Bovine Somatotropin is a genetically-engineered version of a cow's own growth hormone and is injected into the cow to increase milk yield. It usually causes long-lasting swellings at the injection site, doubles the length of the period of catabolic stress experienced by lactating cows after calving and increases the chances of a cow contracting mastitis. These health and welfare issues led to an EU ban. However, BST is still being used in several countries, including the USA, whose dairy products are still being imported into the EU.
Is there any welfare-friendly milk?

Organic dairy farming can cause less suffering to dairy cows. However, conditions for the cows are far from ideal, with many animals often suffering from diseases such as mastitis and lameness. In order to lactate, the cows still need to be made pregnant. Male calves are still a by-product and are usually taken away from their mothers within 24 hours, and many are shot. There is no such thing as 'humane milk' - the only truly welfare-friendly type of milk is non-dairy and obtained from plants.
Is cow's milk a food for humans?

Humans are the only animals who regularly drink the milk of another animal. Milk is essentially a modern, industrial phenomenon - its consumption really took off after the discovery of pasteurisation in 1864. Nowadays, governments, including American and British, often have departments playing the dual role of promoting agricultural products and providing dietary advice.

The scientific research on the health benefits or threats is often contradictory - however it must be remembered that the research is usually funded by the hugely powerful milk industry. Some scientific studies have shown milk to cause illnesses including diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer and osteoporosis. For more information visit the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) or the Vegan Society.

NOW GO TO COWFEST!