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Cattle (which include cows, bulls, steers, heifers and calves) are ruminants, which make them herbivorous (plant-eating) animals. A ruminant has a stomach with four chambers designed to break down fibrous plant material that monogastrics such as humans cannot digest properly. It is thus that cows primarily eat grasses and legumes not only restricted to open fields, but also out on pastures and rangelands. However, what these animals eat are not restricted to such generalities. A dairy cow's diet is often different from a beef cow's, as is a calf, a backgrounding steer's and a finisher steer's would be.
Dairy cows can eat up to 3 to 5% of their body weight in dry matter, and beef cows can eat up to 2 to 3% of their body weight in dry matter (more if they're lactating). The amount of forage they eat depends on the nutritional content and water content: hence cows will eat more grass than they will hay or grain. The amount of forage they eat also depends on their body weight and their nutritional needs in their stage of life: young calves will eat less but higher quality forages than full grown cows; cows that are lactating need high quality forages. Dry (non-milking) cows need less nutrient quality forages. Dairy cows typically need higher quality forages than beef cows.
Dairy cows are fed a mixture of grain and alfalfa hay, or, a TMR ration (total mixed ration) consisting of corn, hay, soy bean, and barley. Corn is sometimes used as a source of fiber. During winter time they are often fed silage, which is chopped up cereal grain plants that is harvested when partially wet (not sun-dried) and stored to be fermented by anaerobic bacteria for several weeks before being fed to them. They will also consume cracked corn, heifer grower (a mixture of corn, oats and other sources of nutrients), hays, grasses, young calves will be started on calf grower.
Beef cows are primarily on pasture most of their lives, but in some cases when winter is harsh, they will be fed hay (sun-dried grasses and legumes), and perhaps silage or grain, depending on the producer's management criteria.
Most beef cattle are allowed to fresh grazing. Cows and bulls, especially. Dairy cows are occasionally, though this also depends on the producer, who may otherwise have them kept in a barn for most of their lives. Beef cattle will also consume, hay, a mixture of grasses including but not limited to legumes (sanfoin, clover, alfalfa, laspedenza, trefoil, etc.) and grasses (timothy, orchard grass, wheat grass, brome, fescue, etc.), and possibly grains (oats, barley, corn soy beans, or sorghum). Insalage, silage, cracked corn, rolled corn, and sweet feeds are other feeds that are fed to cattle, mostly to those that a) have to gain weight, b) are growing, or c) are being fed for slaughter. Some calves will be put a pre-weaning/preconditioning ration of calf grower grains and forage mix; older calves (usually when weaned) can be fed a grower ration, hay, or if there's good-quality pasture available, then that as well or as a main source of their nutrition and energy.
Not all operations have means or money to feed their calves grain all the time; some continental breeds like Charolais, Limousin and Simmental require such inputs to further increase growth weights and average daily gains so that they can be sold at heavier weights to the feedlot. It also "primes" them for what diet they will be eating at the feedlot prior to slaughter. A lot of British breed cattle, on the other hand, only need a little grain to no grain at all, and only hay and grass to give the calves the weight they need to be backgrounded or stockered before being sent to the feedlot. British breeds have a tendency to put on fat quicker and consequently finish faster than Continentals do, so it's important to limit energy intake in rations for the time they are being on a backgrounding operation.
In a feedlot, cattle are fed according to how much they have to gain before they are deemed finished and sent to slaughter. As mentioned above, British breeds typically take a shorter time to reach finishing weight than a Continental breed would if they were both on the same ration. Most finisher rations are comprised of an 80% grain and 20% forage diet. Depending on where a particular feedlot is located, cattle can be fed a mixed ration of corn and soybeans, barley and corn, just barley, just corn, or even winter wheat, triticale, oats, field peas, or rye. Such rations are not fed whole: the grain is ground up in a feed mill and other nutrients (except animal by-product due to the BSE scare in 2003) and feed (like silage) are added to that ration. The goal of a feedlot producer is to produce gains as quickly and efficiently as possible with feed that contains high energy, high protein, and low fibre.
Cattle should also always have a source of fresh water and mineral mix (preferably loose mineral) available to them at all times.
What else can I help you with?
Can a cow eat another cow?
No.
What would an organic cow eat?
There's no such thing as an "organic cow." A cow is a cow, regardless. She will eat what "normal" cows eat, which is defined in the related question posted below.
Will a cow eat meat?
No, a cow will not eat meat, although there will be some curious cow that would probably try it, cows do not and will not eat meat.
Does a cow eat a cow paddy?
No, never. Cow paddies are cow feces.
How eat cow pat?
You don't, it's disgusting if you eat a cow pat!
Can a cow eat an elephant?
No, a cow eats grass.
What would you eat if you had cow in colony times?
The cow.
Does a vulture eat a cow?
Only if the cow is dead. Vultures don't usually swoop down upon an alive cow and eat it.
What do they eat in India schools?
cow balls cow balls
What will eat a cow?
Humans, and any other carnivore (or omnivore) that is higher up on the food chain than a cow is will eat a cow, either by killing and eating it, or scavenging a cow's carcass.
Can Islams eat COW?
Muslims, first of all, can eat cow. Only pork and alcohol is forbidden.
What happens when you eat a sacred cow?
If you eat a sacred cow, you will be subjected to the disapproval of those who considered the cow to be sacred.
