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Cattle Diets and Nutrition
Domestic bovines don't eat just grass: the diet of a bovine is surprisingly complex and involved with the variety of feeds in the form of forage, grain and byproducts available. But in order to determine the diet of a bovine one must understand the nutritional aspect of the bovine as well--an aspect that has its complexities and variations as well. If you are looking to learn and ask questions about the diets and nutrition of cattle, you've come to the right place.
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Normally during daylight hours. Cows eat as soon as they get fed. Cattle can be fed a controlled ration, meaning they get only so much feed and no more; or on a free choice basis, meaning they get to eat all they want. A controlled ration would be used for grain or high nutrition feed. If they cattle ate all they wanted of it they could get sick (called foundering), or get too fat, and the expensive feed would go to waste. Controlled rations are usually fed once or twice a day. Free choice feed is usually grass or hay. The cows get full before they overeat with these less dense feeds. Often cows are fed hay or grass free choice and a controlled amount of grain. They can be fed grain free choice if it is blended with a low calorie filler such as ground corncobs or straw. Some other things to keep in mind: Cows need to spend lots of time chewing their cud. Cows eat much more when it is cold out--their digestive process actually keeps them warm.
Can cows eat themselves to death?
Depends on how hungry and malnourished they are. If some cows broke into a feed house where grain was stored and they gorged themselves on the grain, they could very much die of bloat and/or acute acidosis.
Why is a farmer in the great plains advised to raise cattle rather than grow rice?
Because it's much cheaper to raise cattle on the existing grassland than to buy machinery and irrigation systems to plow the land under, plant the seeds, flood the land and drain the land then harvest them. Cattle just need grass to grow and remain healthy, and require no man-made mechanical or chemical sources to live and grow, except fences to keep them in.
What do you feed a organic cow?
Organic grain or just let her out on pasture to eat grass that hasn't been sprayed with herbicide.
What happens when cow poo goes through streams?
Not much if it's not a steady, constant thing occurring. If it is, though, then it pollutes the water to the point where it will no longer host life, be it fish or any aquatic life. Water downstream for other animals and farms will be affected, so that no animals or humans can use the water to drink from because it is not healthy. Eventually, the stream pretty well "dies" itself from the build-up of manure and/or plant matter that makes the stream more and more shallow every year.
Blades and stalk that cattle eat?
Grass has blades and a stalk which are eaten by grazers like cattle.
Why can cows live on grass but humans can't?
Humans cannot obtain energy by eating grass because the constituents that make up the plant material make it much more difficult for a human to obtain any nutritional value from. Grass is a plant, and it is often a coarse plant that has a rigid structure that contains cellulose, hemi-cellulose, lignin and fibre, all of which impede a monogastric (simple-stomached animal) like the human to properly break down and utilize the energy and nutrients from such a plant. Humans do not have a large cecum like horses, zebras and rabbits do, nor do they have a three or four-chambered stomach like a llama, a camel, a cow or a sheep does. Without these critical organs, humans cannot obtain energy from grass and thus be able to live off of grass.
To shorten this statement up, the simple answer to this question is this: Humans are not adapted to spend a lifetime eating grass. Humans are hunters and gathers by nature, not grazing animals like bison or antelope are.
See the related question for more on the ruminant physiology side of eating and digesting grass.
What country calls gum cud chewing?
If you are asking why they call it that, it could be because some people look like like they are chewing their cud while they are chewing gum. Cud it regurgitated feed that the cow then rechews.
How much grain does a cow eat in a day?
Depending on age between 1-5 yrs. of age you should never feed more than 10 cups to any one cow. At 1 year feed one cup 2 yrs 2-3cups 3 yrs 3-4cups and 5 and up can be fed more and more gradually until about 9-10 cups but feed slowly because to much grain can kill or make a cow sick.
Yes. The Watusi is a breed of cow, which is a ruminant, which chews cud.
Cows tend to eat the most during the morning and evening hours, as well as throughout the day.
