Hi I’m Mike, cows can seem simple, even dumb, but you might be surprised how fascinating
they can be.
Did you know a cow shares 80% of their genes with humans, or that a cows can almost see
360 degrees around and their blind spots are right behind them and oddly enough, right
in front of them?
Today we take a look at the cows of the ranch, on our Wyoming life.
Welcome to our Wyoming Life, we post videos three times per week straight from the ranch,
whatever we have going on.
From haying to gardening to cooking its all right here and we hope that you can take the
time to subscribe and join us as we explore the ranch life and escape the ordinary.
Without cows there would be no ranch, this has been cattle country for hundreds of years.
There have been wars fought right on this land between small ranchers, rustlers and
big-time cattlemen.
There’s evidence of cattle drives moving through, as ranchers took cattle north and
south in the 1800’s, either for sale or to find better grazing land.
The county we live in is still in the top 25 cattle producing counties in the US and
when it comes down to the history of this ranch over the past 100 years we have one
creature to thank.
And that’s a cow.
Today we take a look at our friend the bovine and I invite you to comment if you have any
cow facts or cow stories you want to throw out there.
Its calving season here on the ranch, and that seems as good as a place as any to start.
A cow is pregnant for 9 months, just like humans and let me tell you by the end of the
pregnancy they are moody, temperamental and even sometimes unpredictable.
While pregnant a cow is going to gain about 150 lbs and each pregnancy after that she
will actually gain a little bit more.
Over her lifetime on the ranch a cow will have about 9 calves.
Our oldest cow on the ranch, 80 has had 16 calves, shes not pregnant this year and is
actually living with the heifers, our first-time moms as a chaperone and part time nanny.
When a calf is born it weighs between 60 to 100 lbs, within a hour of birth the calf will
stand, walk and drink from its mom but bigger calves can mean more problems for moms as
well as multiple calves.
Most ranchers I know would rather have a single calf than a set of twins, twins mean more
work and more babysitting on a rancher’s part, possibly even bottle feeding one if
mom can’t take care of it.
The chance of having twins are 1 out of every 100 births in this area, if you want to for
triplets, your odds are 1 in 100 thousand births and quadruplets are 1 in 11 million
almost the same as winning the lottery.
Cows eat, almost constantly and when they aren’t eating, they are digesting, which
looks like eating.
The average cow here will eat about 30lbs of food per day, she will spend 6 hours of
her day eating that food and another 8 hours of her day chewing her cud.
Many believe cows have 4 stomachs, and if you are one of them, you are right and wrong.
A cow has one stomach but it has four distinct compartments.
Each compartment has a different job, the first, the rumen holds up to 50 gallons of
food and water, which the cow regurgitates to chew over and over again, breaking down
the food.
After that it heads into the reticulum which is kind of like a filter, trapping anything
the cow shouldn’t have eaten, rocks, a piece of garbage, whatever it might be.
The omasum then filters and squeezes out the water and the final compartment, the abomasum
passes nutrients into the blood stream.
Then you add in water, each cow drinking about 15 to 30 gallons per day, depending on weather
and outside temperature.
And when all that food and water goes in, something has to come out.
Cows poop up to 65 lbs per day depending on their water consumption and each year can
create 10 tons of manure.
The weight equivalent of 5 average cars.
Moving back to the other end of the cow, the less smelly end, one of the first things you
notice is the eyes on each side of their head, so let’s talk about a cows eyesight.
Grab a matadors cape and lets wave it around.
Another misconception about cows, especially bulls, the males, its that they attack the
color red.
I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but the red cape is just for show as cows are actually
red/green colorblind.
They can see colors but red and green are seen as version of gray or black.
They can see a muted version of yellow and blue but unlike humans, cows only have two
color receptors in their eyes.
They may not be into the colors we are but they are sensitive to contrasts in colors.
Shadows will spook them as well as reflections.
When moving and working around cattle it’s also important to know what they see, cows
can see in almost 360 degrees around them but just like you flying down the interstate,
they have blind spots, directly behind them and directly in front of them.
They also suffer from poor depth perception, which is why when a cow is trying to figure
out how far away you are, she will often lower her head.
Not because she is going to charge, but because she is trying to figure out if you are threat.
Then she may charge, so watch out.
That forward view is also blocked by a cow’s other sense organ, her nose.
Cows have an acute sense of smell and can detect odors from up to 6 miles away, whether
it be food or danger.
Light on her feet a cow is not, they can be clumsy and awkward but if you have ever seen
one run, you know they can get up and move.
Cows have been clocked sprinting at around 30 miles per hour for short distances and
can sustain a run of about 8 to 10 miles per hour.
Not bad considering she weighs almost 1500 lbs.
And usually a cow will run toward or with other cows.
They form very strong bonds and friendships with other cows and have been know to hang
out with their best friends.
Cows can be very cliquish and the hierarchy of the herd starts with a boss cow.
Cows that don’t like her or listen to her are often ostracized and a new addition to
the herd may have to build up relationships and trust with other cows before she is accepted.
Cows also come in many shapes and sizes, there are over 800 different breeds of cattle in
the world, from Texas Longhorns to the Watusi to the miniature panda cow currently the rarest
breed of cow in the world with only about 30 in total.
Here we raise Angus, both black and red in color, but we are diverse.
A few of our cows also have a mix of Hereford in them.
Giving them the white coloration on their face.
Some broco faced and some baldies.
Beef cattle like we raise here are raised for meat production and dairy cattle are raised
to produce milk, and while we are talking about milk, all cows produce white milk.
A survey from the innovation center for US dairy found that 7% of American adults think
chocolate milk come from brown cows.
I’ll save you from doing the math.
That’s over 17 million people.
Nope all cows make white milk, cocoa beans make chocolate milk.
If you would like to come explore the ranch life with us we invite you to subscribe and
come with us and escape the ordinary.
Each and every week we bring you more from the ranch, we take you with us as we work
cattle, help calves be born, garden for farmers markets, gather eggs, cook a homemade ranch
style dinner and so much more.
This life is rewarding in so many different ways, but one of the best is that we are able
to share it with you.
Comment below, leave us your cow observations, facts and stories.
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I’ll see you next time and until then, have a great week and thanks for going us in our
Wyoming life.