Interesting Cow Stuff

• A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.
• A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.
• Cows often have their ears pierced-with I.D. tags.
• A cow weighs about 1400 pounds. That's probably 10-25 times what we weigh!
• What a cow eats affects how much milk she gives.
• Cows drink 25-50 gallons of water each day. That's nearly a bathtub full.
• When the Pilgrims came to America, they brought cows with them.
• From a cow's gelatin we get photographic film and the dearly departed phonographic records.

  Cow Rental Fees

• In December in Singapore, a couple brought a cow and a calf on the elevator to their apartment, along with 40 relatives, to bless their new home in an ancient Hindu ceremony. The cow rental fee was $480, and the couple paid an additional $200 in cleaning costs after the cow soiled the living room during the ceremony!

  Violence in Cow-lumbia

• Colombia, long the world's murder capital due to drug-related deaths, now has violence spreading to farm animals. RCN Radio reported that a Holstein cow stepped on the trigger of a loaded rifle left in a field by a farm laborer, and shot another cow in the head. The injured cow is listed in critical condition at a nearby veterinary hospital!

  Exploding Cows Part 1

• Chris Koresko (koresko@zoe.as.utexas.edu) reports the following from Time: As the middle of the country endured its sixth day of sweltering summer heat, operators of feed lots in Iowa faced a new problem - exploding cows. The extreme heat causes gases to rapidly expand in animals after they die of heat-related distress. In many cases, they literally burst. "We've got to get them picked up right away or otherwise when you pick them up all you get is pieces," said one Iowa resident.

  Exploding Cows Part 2

• Sharon Hoger (sharonh@zilker.net) follows up: Not only that, but cows can explode electrically as well. (I saw this on 60 minutes, or some such). On some old farms, the electrical wiring is old and poorly grounded. Large amounts of current will leak into the ground. Unfortunately, nearby animals (cows, you know) can be the termination points for this electricity, and they just blow up.