Cows milk can be used for drinking and also to make dairy products such as yoghurt, cheese, butter and cream.
A cow is a female and she is allowed to calve once a year. After having a calf a cow gives milk for 300 days afterwards. The cows diet is very important. Can you think why?
Cows that are well fed and looked after give us lots of good quality milk which the farmer can sell to the creamery.
A cow needs 15 - 20 kg of feed and 45 - 90 l of fresh water a day. (Thats as much food as 15 - 20 bags of sugar and 20 - 45 big bottles of water).Cows eat grass, hay or silage. Some cows are also fed minerals and vitamins to help improve the quality of their milk.
A cow produces milk in the udder, where it is stored until the farmer milks her. Most farmers milk the cows by machine in a place called a milking parlour. It is much quicker to milk a cow by machine than by hand. It usually take about 5 -8 minutes.
Cows have a special stomach that helps them make milk. They have a stomach made up of four parts. When they eat grass they swallow it without chewing it properly. The grass goes to the first two parts of the stomach. Here it is turned to cud.
The cow can bring the cud back up and chew on it again. This is why you might see a cow munching for a long time without looking like she has been eating. If a cow is chewing her cud it means she is happy. When the cud is swallowed it goes to the next two parts of the stomach to be turned into milk.