Cow Facts.

Cows produce an average of about 3 gallons of milk in one milking, and can be milked 3 times a day for a total of 9 gallons of milk a day. That's 2,730 gallons in a year!

Cows have a unique digestive system that includes 4 stomachs! They swallow their food quickly with out chewing it well and store it in their first and second stomachs. When the cows have eaten their fill, they burp up small portions of the food that they stored in the first and second stomach. This burped up food is called cud. The cows chew this cud and when it is broken down enough they swallow it to their third stomach for further breakdown. The food then leaves the their third stomach and enters the fourth stomach for digestion.

Cows spend about six and a half hours a day eating and eat about 90 pounds of food durring that time. It takes about 2 days for the food that a cow eats to be turned into milk.

Cows are large animals and generally weigh about 1,400 pounds and stand about 5 1/2 feet tall. On our dairy farm we milk Holstein cows. Though there are several breeds of cows in the world, the Holstein produces the most milk per cow.