Know the secrets of the cows

Thanks to their googly eyes and placid demeanor, at first glance, cows appear to be very simple animals, but they are not. Cows are very fascinating and deserve to be recognized for much more than providing the milk and meat that much of the world depends on, as well as the leather for our shoes or belts. For example, cows have an excellent sense of smell and can smell something up to 10 km (9.6 miles) away.

Cows are descendants of the wild aurochs, and were first domesticated in southeastern Turkey around 10,500 years ago. The breeding of these animals is known as cattle farming. Today there are approximately 1.3 billion head of cattle.

Fun facts

• The females are known as cows, the males as bulls, and the calves as calves or calves.
• Cattle are herbivores, their diet consists mainly of grasses, stems, leaves, seeds and roots. Cows eat a lot, spending at least eight hours a day eating.
• A special feature of these animals is that they have four stomachs. They are ruminant animals, this means that they first consume their food and then ruminate. Rumination consists of regurgitating food in order to chew it again.
• These animals, in addition to providing meat, milk and leather, also serve as a means of cargo transportation in some places and are used in agriculture pulling plows.
• The cow’s excrement is used as fertilizer or fuel.
• In India, cows are considered sacred, many of them roam the streets freely and the consumption of their meat is prohibited.