A baby cow is a calf.
Its father is a bull. Its mother is a cow.
Cows eat grass and make milk.
We get milk from cows.
We also get meat and leather from them.
Watch a video about cows :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frcAf4ks9_s
Life Cycle
A young cow is called a calf ©Getty
Male cattle are called bulls, females are cows. A young one is a calf, and when there are more than one they are called calves.
A bull and a calf mate, and then a baby grows inside the cow. After about 9 months the calf is born.
The calf drinks milk from its mother's udders until it is old enough to eat grass.
How do cattle digest their food?
Cattle are herbivores, and they have a special digestive system because of that. They have four stomachs because plants are hard to digest.
When there are many cows together, they are called cattle. A large group of cattle is called a herd of cattle. There are about 800 different kinds, or breeds, of cattle.
This is a herd of long-horned cattle. Some breeds of cattle have large horns, others do not. ©iStock Images
Some kinds are farmed because they produce lots of milk and others because they are good for meat.
Cattle farmed for milk are dairy cattle, and those farmed for milk are beef cattle.
Dairy cattle
On dairy farms cows are milked by machines ©iStock
Some cattle farms are called dairy farms. They produce milk. They keep the kinds of cows that give a lot of milk.
Long ago, cows were milked by hand. ©Getty Images
A cow makes milk inside a part of her body called udders. Cows are milked twice a day, always at the same time in the morning and afternoon. Most dairy cows make about 25 litres of milk every day.
On a farm, machines pump the milk out of the cows' udders. The machine milks a lot of cows at the same time.
The milk is cooled and taken in big tankers to a factory. In the factory, the milk is heated to kill germs and put into bottles or cartons and taken to shops so we can buy it.
Milk, cheeses, yoghurt and butter. ©Getty Images
Cow's milk has a watery part and a thicker part called cream. Sometimes the cream is mixed through the milk before it is bottled or put in a carton.
Sometimes the cream is taken out and put into bottles and taken to shops to be sold separately.
Milk without cream is called skim milk. It is put into bottles and cartons and taken to shops.
Some milk is made into cheese.
Some milk is made into yoghurt.
Cream is made into butter. The cream is shaken until it turns into butter.
Beef cattle
Beef cattle are raised for meat ©iStock
Some farms grow cattle for meat. Different kinds of cattle are raised to give us meat. The meat is called beef or veal.
The cattle are sold and killed at an abattoir, and the meat is then sold to butchers to be put in their shops.
The state of Queensland is the major producer of beef cattle in Australia.
There are about 26 million head of cattle in Australia. Beef farmers produce about 2 million tonnes of beef and veal each year.
Grain fed cattle are fed grain for at least 60 days.
Grass fed cattle graze and eat grass in pastures. They take up more room so the beef costs more. Grass fed beef has less fat than grain fed cattle.
Both grass and grain fed beef are excellent foods which provide a wide range of essential nutrients including: iron, zinc, omega-3s, protein, B vitamins, selenium and vitamin D. There are many people who don’t eat meat for a variety of reasons, and they must find these essential nutrients in other ways.
It’s a good idea to find information from more than one source!
Read more about beef and dairy cattle
https://www.konnecthq.com/cow-facts/
Read about the main breeds of dairy and beef cattle in Australia
https://lactalis.com.au/info-center/different-breeds-of-cows
http://beef2live.com/story-cattle-breeds-australia-89-106444
Watch a video about how to make butter at home or at school
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDq269e6w_c
