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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.
1,811 Questions
Are crab apples harmful to cows?
No, but you must limit how many they eat or it can give them diarrhea.
Do farmers feed cows hormones?
Not all farmers, no. Only those that are feeding cattle in CAFO operations (feedlot and dairy) that are raised for only beef and/or milk and in those countries that do not prohibit hormones or antibiotics being fed to cattle will be feeding cows hormones.
Does cow dung contribute to global warming?
No. All ruminants affect the ozone due to the gastric gases released. Cows are just so many that their combined effect is greatest.
What shrubs are poisonous to cows?
One of the worst plants is "Ragwort". althouth it tastes bitter and generally horses wont eat it in the field, often bad farmers will quite happily make hay bales with dead ragwort inside. It is a very slow poison and damages kidneys etc. If enough is eaten by the time you notice your horse is ill, it is too late and the damage is done and the vet will have to put your horse down. If you see it growing in your field pull it out and burn it. Dont let it seed. Make sure you buy hay from a very reputable dealer and check the hay for dried ragwort first.
Of course cows eat parsley, they are allergic to tomatoes though
A Holstein is the oldest cow owned by Bill and Carol Hegstrom from Brooks Maine. The cow's name is Nonny and she is 20 years old Dec. 18th 2007
There is currently a mixed Holstein/Hereford cow in Sevierville, Tennessee named Blossom that was born in 1980 making her 27 years old as of February 8th 2008.
My housemate is a vet and she treated a cow today whose owner swears black and blue that the cow is 30 years of age.
i have a cow that is 33 yrs old and was born in 1977 . she has had 32 calves with 3 sets of twins. she has been in the local paper before .we live in new zealand .her name is Quincy and she is Ayrshire.Our names are ken and Ruth Vincent and we live in 57 kaiwie road ,kaitaia .
If she's a female bovine that has had at least two calves, then she should be called a cow. If this "cow" is anything BUT the definition above, "she" would be a heifer (a female bovine that has had zero to 1 calf), a steer (a castrated male bovine), or a bull (an intact [has testes] male bovine that is used for breeding).
To keep animals, to look after animals, with some purpose like breeding them for market.
What is the function of each cow stomach?
digesting the food that it eats.
Just one stomach, but chambers called , reticulum rumen, omasum and abomasum ,for the ultimate efficiency in digestion.
Is rabbit one of animals that chew the cud?
To 'chew the cud' is a term used for 'ruminant' animals who swallow food, digest it for a bit in one of their stomachs, then regurgitate it back into the mouth to chew further. Their diet is mainly cellulose, and it is not easy to digest. By doing this, they can extract more nutrients from it.
Rabbits are not ruminants, they have only one stomach, and there is no regurgitation. Rather, they give their digestive systems a second chance to digest a meal in a different way, by producing a soft excrement, which is eaten immediatly. This special excrement contains partially digested food, rather than waste products.
How much to feed a calf to kill it?
It costs around $20. It could be free if you have a yard with grass and a small tub of water. It just depends on how you want to feed it. They should also be fed hay, which you can buy in big rectangular bails for less than $10.
No, alpacas do not have upper teeth. Alpacas have a soft upper gum area, which they chew their chud against with their bottom teeth. Alpacas do not have upper teeth, and grasseaters don't usually need them.
Sage grass is a perennial weed that reseeds from the heads of the broomsedge plant.
Why do horses and cows have a lot of molars?
Cows have evolved to have only lower incisors based on the forage they eat - grass, sticks, weeds and other tough forage. Instead of upper incisors cattle have a tough dental pad. This allows the cattle to break off some of the vegetation they consume but allows them to rip up some other plants so they also consume the minerals found in the soil on the roots of the ripped-up plants.
What is organic cattle farming?
Organic cattle farming is a method for raising cattle in a more "natural" way. Cattle raised this way are allowed to graze on natural foods and have access to the outdoors. What feed they are given is grown organically, and they are usually not given antibiotics or hormones. These cattle often have much better living conditions than most large-scale cattle farms that are often crowded and prevent cattle from getting much exercise in order to maximize profits.
Some of these organic cattle farmers also use the cow manure as a natural way to fertilize their fields. ---- Different countries as well as local governments have varying criteria for what is considered certified organic, and there is still some debate as to the minimum requirements for defining what constitutes an organically raised cow. ---- Here's the definitive answer. The word "organic" means "containing carbon". If you look it up in the dictionary, that's the first definition. You have to go through about 8 or 10 alternative definitions before you get to anything anywhere near how people are (mis)using the word today. "Organic" has always meant either "containing carbon" or "of or pertaining to living things or once-living things". An "organic compound" is a compound containing carbon. "Organic chemistry" is the field of chemistry dealing with substances containg carbon. "Organism" refers to a living thing. "Organ" refers to a part of a living thing. "Organophosphates" are substances that contain carbon and phosphorous (organophosphates also happen to be very potent insecticides, and their use is strictly forbidden in so-called "organic farming", yet by definition, organophosphates are the epitome of "organic". Go figure!) Over the last decade or so, however, the definition of the word "organic" has been co-opted (stolen) by a small group of farmers who would like to distinguish their products from food raised in a conventional manner. These farmers, in general, don't use man-made fertilizers, pesticides, growth hormones, preservatives, or genetic modification. They believe this, somehow, makes their products healthierthan conventionally-grown products (but the facts contradict this belief - more on this later). These farmers needed a word to describe their products, to set them apart from the conventional products. You see, their products ended up being of far lower quality than conventional products. Since they didn't use insectides, they tended to have quite a bit of insect damage. Since they didn't use man-made fertilizers, they didn't have good yields, and so it was more expensive to produce a given amount of product. And, at least to most consumers, the stuff didn't taste as good as conventionally-grown food. Consumers aren't going to spend more for lower-quality food, unless you can convince them that it is somehow healthier. So the growers of these kinds of food searched high and low for a label that they could stick on their food to differentiate it from conventional foods, and phrases like "bug-ridden", "bad-tasting", "manure-grown", and "growth-stunted" (though absolutely true) didn't give the consumers a favorable impression of the products. So, after toying with words and phrases like "natural" and "____-free" they eventually settled on "organic". But then a curious thing happened. Although all of these growers had an objection to something in the way that conventional foods are grown, they didn't all object to everything. Some thought it was bad to use pesticides, but okay to use fertilizers. Others thought you could use "natural" pesticides and fertilizers, but not "man-made" pesticides and fertilizers. The farmers that were using a more restrictive definition of "organic" started complaining that the others weren't really "organic", but were taking advantage of the label to sell their only-slightly-more-organic-than-conventional products. Isn't that ironic?! "Organic" growers were complaining about "less-organic" growers mis-using the word "organic", when they themselves were mis-using it. Essentially, they're saying, we can change the definition of the word to mean what we want it to mean, but those other guys can't change the definition to what they want it to mean. The hypocrisy boggles the mind. Eventually, the US Department of Agriculture got involved, and they came up with a definition of "organic" that all growers had to follow if they wanted to market their produce as "organic". This definition was, not surprisingly, contrary to the definition in the dictionary. Now, it is a crime, punishable by a $10,000 fine per occurrence, to label any food product "organic" if it does not meet the USDA definition, even if it meets the dictionary's definition of "organic". Today, if I tried to sell you an apple, and I accurately called it "organic" (because it contains carbon), I would be fined $10,000. Furthermore, there are a lot of growers who consider themselves "organic", but don't quite meet the USDAs definition (or are not willing to pay the cost of certification) that are really ticked off at the government. But is"organic" food actually healthier for human consumption, as the "organic" growers like to believe? Numerous studies say No. It is not more nutritious, as the British government has stated in its official position on the subject. "Organic" food does tend to contain less pesticide residue, but that doesn't really mean much in terms of human health. Most pesticides are not dangerous to human health at all, and the ones that are dangerous are not present, in retail-level conventional foods, at high enough concentrations to cause any health concerns. There has never been a case of human death due to consumption of pesticide residue on retail-level food. By contrast, there have been several deaths attributed to manure residue on organic food. The 2006 e Coli outbreak in the US, which killed 3 people and sickened nearly 200, was traced to organic spinach which contained e Coli from animal manure. "Organic" growers, you see, have to use manure on their crops because they can't use man-made fertilizers. But manure contains e Coli, which can be deadly to humans. Of course, much of the information above does not apply specifically to organic cattle farming, but to organic farming in general. However, to answer the question, by the actual definition of the word "organic", "organic cattle farming" is any enterprise engaged in raising "organic" cattle, which means any cattle, because all cattle contain carbon. ---- See Discussion Area
What kind of food do oxen eat?
Oxen eat the same things as cows and cattle eat: grass, hay, grain, silage, etc. See related question below for more.
What do cows eat in factory farms?
They are essentially "harvested" for their meat, eggs or milk. Though factory farms don't exactly exist (they're rather called Confined Animal Feeding Operations or CAFOs), animals are primarily raised so that they don't have to work for humans, but the humans are working for them, feeding them, attending to their health concerns, making sure their living areas are clean. Of course what really happens to the animals depends on what animals you're referring to in these "factory farms."
How much do cattle ranchers in the rainforest destroy in a day?
None. Ranchers don't raise their cattle in the rainforest. They raise their cattle on land that was once rainforest, and deforested for reasons either for making more land for more cattle, or more land to grow more crops from palm oil to soybeans.
Do farmers place magnets in cows stomachs?
Yes, a good number of farmers will place a "cow magnet" (magnet with rounded ends) inside their cows stomachs by feeding it to them. This magnet will sit in the second stomach (the reticulum) and hopefully keep any stray pieces of wire, nails, bolts, etc, from tearing through their stomach lining.
How are cows and birds digestive system different?
In the horse, fermentation of the ingested vegetation is after the small intestine, in the cecum. In the cow, fermentation of the ingested vegetation is before the small intestine, in the rumen.
Can you grow psychedelic shrooms in cow manure?
Just eat the cow manure. There is enough nitrogen and methane by-products to get you high!! Cheaper, and you do not have to wait for the mushrooms to grow. The mushrooms are very difficult to grow. They need the right amount of light each day - indirect lighting - , plus they need the proper amount of moisture. Too wet, they will mold and/or rot off at the surface of the manure/substrate, too dry, and they will die. Relative temp. and moisture needs to be perfect to establish a good, strong harvest of 'shrooms.
What is the name of a cows first stomach?
The name of the cow's first "stomach" (which is simply a chamber connected to other chambers in one large stomach of a ruminant) is the Reticulum, where hardware like nails, wire, and other metal objects sit and get digested and broken down by gastric juices.
