Cows are a lazy habitual creature. Spending most of their time each day grazing and eating. Since being domesticated about 10,500 years ago a day in the life of a cow has become very routine. Cows are mainly domesticated for the production of milk and beef. The taxonomy of cows are as follows: Kingdom: Animalia. Phylum: Chordata. Class: Mammalia. Order: Artiodactyla. Family: Bovidae. Genus: Bos. Species: indicus or taurus. (Unknown author. “www.usask.ca/wcvm/kelsey/part2/chinfo12.pdf”) The cow has four stomachs. The first stomach is called the rumen which is the biggest with a volume of 40-50 gallons. In the digestive system of the rumen there billions of microorganisms, which are responsible for digesting …show more content…
The cow has trouble urinating and defecating. Treating a cow with bloat with anti-bloat preparation, after treatment the cow needs to keep moving to encourage the preparation to mix with the frothy rumen content. When the bloat is more progress the cow needs to be treated by the veterinarian. A stomach tube can be inserted to relieve the gas build up and pressure. The cow needs to continue to move and anti foaming agents can be inserted into the stomach tube to directly mix with the foam from the bloat. (Robson, Dr. Sarah, February, 2007. …show more content…
The first is Angus whch makes up about 60 percent of the United States cowherds. The second is Hereford, the third is Gelbvieh which is one of the oldest German cattle breeds. The fourth is the Limousin and the fifth type is the Simmental. These are all used for the production of beef products throughout the United States of America. (Welch, Bob. Retrieved from, www.americancowboy.com/article/top-5-beef-cattle-breeds-24440) Cattle farms make up a great deal of the United States with 619,172 beef cattle farms(USDA 2012 Ag Census). The beef cattle industry has an economic impact of $88.25 billion(USDA ERS 2014). (Unknown author. Retrieved from, www.beefusa.org/beefindustrystatistics.aspx) Cows of all different shapes, sizes, and colors make up a lot of the world’s food industry. People drink milk, which there are other animals that produce milk but cows milk is used and sold in most supermarkets around. Many people consume beef which there is a lot produced in America. Before receiving this topic I had no idea that there were more than just cows with four stomachs. I am glad I now understand a lot of the cycle of digestion a ruminant undergoes just to eat
The Dairy Cattle Instructional Unit was built in 1992 and is used for a wide range of instructional activities. The first floor of this unit contains two classrooms, a computer room, a nutrition and physiology laboratory, and a microbiology laboratory. Numerous plaques and awards from local cattle shows dot the white walls. Cal Poly has bred some of the top-rated cows in the nation for type and production and individual cows have won many awards for the rich content and amount of milk produced. Industrial-like stairs along one wall lead up to the second floor where visitors can view the milking process. Cows are milked at the milking parlor daily from 4 to 6 am and 4 to 6 pm. This immaculate parlor can milk 16 cows at one time and contains state of the art milking equipment including an energy-efficient pre-cooling system, which the milk passes through before being stored in two 3,000-gallon bulk tanks. The physiology laboratory is used for artificial insemination, feed analysis, and dairy biotechnology courses. Students perform experiments such as embryo manipulations and transfer techniques in this laboratory.
The “Australian Cattle Dog” describes the breed as a unique blend of five different dogs. The breeds are the smooth-coated collie, Dalmatian, kelpie, dingo, and the bull terrier. This diversified blend that makes up the Australian Cattle Dog was obtained by many years of trial and error. There are the blue and red varieties called the Heeler or the Queensland Heeler. The heeler breed is designed to work with cattle, sheep, hogs, and fowl (Beauchamp 10).
Laliberte, Richard. "Growth Hormones in Beef and Milk." WeightWatchers.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. .
Normally, cows in Northern Europe in places such as Denmark live normal lives simply grazing on grass, and existing. However, there have been recent changes that have disrupted this normal activity. Generally the bluetongue virus (spread by Culicoides imicola, a biting midge) has been confined to Southern Europe and other places around the Mediterranean. But with the increase in temperature throughout the area, the midge has been allowed to migrate northward. This new pest is a nuisance and causes lots of difficulties to farmers in the area. When a cow contracts this disease, they usually also receive oral ulcers, salivation, stiffness, fever and eventually the inevitable- death (Merck Veterinary Manual NP). Because of the increase in temperature, midges have spread around the globe infecting livestock and creating terrible trouble for many farmers.
We should be concerned about the health of the animals that we are eating because if they are not consuming any healthy food we will not get our required nutrients. In the movie Food Inc. it shows how cows are only supposed to eat grass which is essential to them however we are now feeding them corn which makes the cows bigger and fatter faster than usual but there are many things wrong with it. This could cause Cows to raise the acid level this also creates existence for the dangerous disease E. Coli. E. Coli is a bacteria that is inside your intestines that helps you break down food. When cows are fed corn it also decreases the healthy acids such as Omega-3 and increases Omega-6 which is unhealthy. We should also care about their living conditions because a cow is in one area for most of the day just eating corn and when cows eat corn they tend to poop a lot. It is crowded in the eating area for cows so when they poop it falls on the ground and they eat so much corn that they just keep pooping so eventually they start stepping in it and this would cause them to get diseases. Some farmers when they slaughter them they do check for diseases but some don’t, so the diseases travel with the cow and onto your dinner plate which means that you could be eating an infected cow without knowing it. This could give you diseases and it could cause death. In Food Inc. they showed an example of a boy called Kevin who died because of consuming some unsanitary meat. He got E. Coli and died 12 days later. This proves that this should not be taken lightly because many people die from diseases similar to this one.
There is no humane way to raise beef cattle to meet the world's growing demand. Let's take a look at one of the biggest beef based corporations in the world, Tyson. Tyson slaughters and packages 170,938 cattle every day! That number is not including any other of the corporations who are
America is one of the world’s largest producers of beef. According to Raloff (2002), approximately 36 million beef cattle are raised in America each year, and approximately two-thirds are treated with hormones (para.2). Farmers use these hormones to increase the rate of growth in their cattle. By increasing the cattle’s growth rate, the farmers can produce more beef and still making more money, they can sell it at an inexpensive rate to the consumers. The hormones that may be administered to beef and dairy cattle may already be produced, in small amounts, naturally in their own bodies or synthetic. According to the U.S. Department of Food and Drug Administration (2002), “the accepted naturally occurring hormones that may be administered to beef and milk producing cattle are estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, and the synthetic hormones that are accepted are zeranol, trenbolone acetate, and melengestrol acetate.” None of the hormones listed above are acceptable in the industries in Europe to give for the food and milk productions.
agriculture and the farms throughout the United States. There are few to no statistics on such
Although feeding corn to cattle speeds up the process until they reach slaughter time, evidence shows that feeding corn to cattle that are genetically wired to eat grass produces unhealthy beef which then plays a role in healthy people, minimizing the longevity in Americans. Furthermore, the logic of nature relies on complex mutual relationship where each animal contributes to the sustainability of their environment in a cyclic manner as stated in the chapter “All Flesh is Grass”:
Many people may ask, “What the heck is the Cattleman’s Association?” Normally, the first thoughts that fill people’s minds when they hear “Cattleman’s Association” are: farmers, cows, farms, rednecks, dairy, beef, steaks, hamburger, milk, and so on. Many of these “stereotypes” prove true and many not so much. My experience with the KCA (Kentucky Cattleman’s Association) may be limited, but its roots run deep in my hometown and my family. Although a great number of my family members are in the KCA, I couldn’t tell you the first thing about them, which inspired me to “get to know” them.
Ranching goes beyond chasing cows and riding horses. Ranchers are businessmen. They carefully manage their operation's expenses, income, and taxes like other typical businessmen. Income only comes once a year when they sell their calves in the fall. Therefore, each dollar is spent wisely on equipment, feed, and advertising.
Such products include vaccines, medications, and antibiotics to support healthy and consistent herds of beef producing cattle. It segments the market into three distinct categories. Hobbyists herd less than 100 cows; Traditionalists commonly carry between 100 to 499, and businesses are working with 500 or more. (Mohr, 1999) Time spent in the field with the ranchers was allocated based on the volume of product purchased by each individual.
British Charolais Cattle Society. (2012). Charolais. Retrieved December 10, 2013, from British Charolais Cattle Society: http://www.charolais.co.uk/
Cow connoisseurs usually begin with one or two cows and are therefore able to relate to their cows on a more personal level. Get in touch with your cow. Spend quality time with it. Get to know it as it gets to know you. Both you and your cow have distinctive attributes that distinguish either of you from others. That should play a big part in the naming process, and spending time with your animal creates a better bond and gives insight to a proper name for the creature.
Cows are naturally very gentle and calm creatures. These smart and sweet natured animals have been known to go to great lengths to escape slaughterhouses. More than forty-one million of these sensitive animals suffer and die a painful death each year in the United States. When cows are still very young they are burned with hot irons, there testicles are torn or cut off, all without painkillers. Most beef cattle are born in one state, live in another, and are slaughtered in another. The cows who survive the gruesome transportation process are shot in the head with a bolt gun, hung upside down by there legs, and taken onto the killing floor where there throats