Old enough to breed by 14 months of age (if body size is adequate at that time). Pregnant for 9 months. Average cow will milk for 300 days, then have a 60 day rest period before giving birth again. Usually only one calf is born at a time.

• Milk (up to 130 lbs. per day at peak levels, 70-80 lbs/day average over the lactation period) and milk products used to make cheese, ice cream, etc.
• Meat, especially lean hamburger
• Leather products
• Fertilizer to replenish the fields and crops with the nutrients consumed by the cow in her normal feedstuffs.

A cow can consume 40 lbs of corn silage (fermented corn plants) daily.

A cow can digest materials that are completely indigestible to the average human - grass, hay, shrubs, unprocessed grains, seeds from cotton plants, newspaper, chicken litter, and even the nitrogen from her own urine. She is able to take these unusual protein source and turn them into two food products with some of the highest nutrient value available for man - meat and milk.

The stomach of the cow is divided into four compartments that are specialized to ferment these indigestible feeds. It takes many days for these plant materials to be "predigested" in the rumen (the stomach); during this time the cow chews and re-chews the grassy material. She will actually belch (burp) up some of this material and chew it for about 30 seconds, swallow and repeat the process with another mouthful (cud).

Ruminants (cows, sheep, goats, deer, etc.) are the second most successful group of animals in the world - only the insects are more widespread and have greater numbers throughout the world.

A dairy cow can produce enough milk in less than a week to support her own baby for the entire time it needs to drink milk. For the next 290 or so days, the milk she produces goes to support humans - by providing the milk for their children, the cream for their coffee, the milk for their cereal, the cheese for their pizza, the cream for their butter and ice cream, etc. No other species is capable of doing this.

In many parts of the world, cows once provided or may still provide the primary means of tilling the soil for planting crops.

A quiet and gentle disposition when raised by humans.

No other animal can feed and clothe people as effectively as the cow (although the sheep is a good close second!).

Bacteria and protozoans (small, one-celled animals) live in the rumen of the cow to help her digest the materials she eats. If there were to die permanently, the cow would starve to death.

Cows are very tolerant of pain. Using local anesthetics, a veterinarian can open the abdomen of the cow and perform necessary surgical procedures (like a caesarean section) while the cow stands quietly and patiently throughout the surgery.