Cow facts: social, friendly and more than milk machines

19 fun facts about cows 

1. Cows are cud-chewingly clever

Cows might not top most people’s lists for smartest animals, but that’s not their fault. Cows are secretly super-intelligent. 

They are capable of finding and remembering the best grazing and resting spots, can tell the difference between familiar and new objects, and can recognise people from pictures. Even young calves can use their spatial memory to solve puzzles.

Possibly most impressively, they’ve kept their cleverness quiet; spending their days chewing cud rather than solving puzzles to prove their intelligence. Now that’s really clever!

2. Cows have two million-year-old roots

Cows might not be directly descended from dinosaurs, but they still have a pretty impressive lineage. Modern cows are descended from creatures known as aurochs; large, fierce animals that weighed about 1,000kg and wielded sharp horns. 

Aurochs were found in Europe, Asia, and North Africa two million years ago and survived until the 1600s. 

3. Cows love socialising with friends

Cows are herd animals, which means they prefer to spend their time in large groups. Just like humans, they play favourites and prefer to sleep close to their friends and relatives for safety.

As well as having BFFs, cows can take a dislike to others and even hold grudges. Anyone who mistreats a cow shouldn’t expect to be forgiven anytime soon — by us or the cows.

4. Cows learn through play

Cows can often seem slow and sedate but they’re also playful, especially when they’re young. When they have enough space, they love to run about, chase each other, and even play with balls. They might be a little too big to play fetch with, though.

5. Cows are exploited for factory farming

Okay, so not all our facts about cows are fun. Many cows across the world are kept in cruel factory farms which don’t allow them to behave in natural, healthy ways. These cows rarely feel the sun on their skin or grass beneath their hooves.

Dairy cows might only spend 20 minutes with their mothers before being separated forever, which is deeply traumatic for such social animals. Beef cows are equally mistreated, often subjected to painful dehorning and castration. They are sometimes killed without pre-stunning, which causes unimaginable fear, distress, and pain.

6. Cows have eyes in the back of their heads

Not quite, but they do have an impressive range of vision. Because their eyes are at the sides of their heads, cows can see movement across 300°. When they put their heads down to graze, that range increases to almost the full 360°. That’s a lot more than our measly 180°! 

We do have some advantages over cows, though. They’re colourblind to red and green, seeing these as shades of black and grey. So, the take-home here is that you’ll struggle to sneak up on a cow, but at least they won’t question your fashion choices!

7. Cows might think you’re smelly

In addition to having great hearing, cows have an incredible sense of smell. In some cases, they can detect odours from over 8km away! This helps them to identify predators and avoid danger.

So, next time you’re complaining about the ‘rural’ smell of a local farm, ask yourself how you might smell to the cow.

8. Cows have heightened hearing

Just in case having great vision and an amazing sense of smell wasn’t enough, cows have pretty good hearing as well. Like dogs, they can hear higher frequencies than us and are easily startled by loud noises.

Before you start to think that cows have exceptional senses all around, we should say that they’re not great at localising sounds, especially compared to horses or goats.

9. Cows are treated as milking machines

Cows naturally produce milk to feed their calves, but intensive farming has taken this out of all proportion. A cow only naturally produces about 1,000 litres of milk per calf and would normally only have one calf per year.

Factory-farmed dairy cows are forced to produce up to 20,000 litres of milk a year, which takes an inevitable toll on their bodies. They are usually artificially inseminated within three months of giving birth to keep the milk flowing, which can leave them infertile after just three births.

10. Cows can really eat

Cows have an incredibly complicated digestive system with four different compartments or chambers for their food to move through. This is where the popular image of cows having four stomachs comes from.

Dairy cows need to eat between 25 and 50kg of food every day. That’s an awful lot of grass and other plants! They also drink about a bathful of water daily. 

11. Cows are caring mothers

Like human mothers, cows are pregnant for around nine months and usually only have one calf at a time. Unlike human babies, calves fast-forward to the toddler stage, learning to stand within minutes of birth.

But here’s our favourite cow fact: cows are very protective of their calves, watching over them and walking miles calling for them if they get lost. The entire herd plays a role in bringing up the calves, with some breeds operating a ‘guard cow’ system. Each cow in the herd takes turns as the lookout, allowing the others to graze in peace.

12. Cows are separated from their calves at birth in factory farms

Factory-farmed cows don’t get to spend time as a family. Calves would normally suckle for up to a year, but dairy farms separate the mother and calf within hours of the birth. 

This is hugely distressing and can lead to long-term health problems for youngsters. They might not get enough colostrum (the “first milk”) which can weaken their immune system, while the milk replacers they are given can cause digestive disorders and ulcers.

13. Cows are naturally very curious

As well as being playful, cows are remarkably curious. Researchers found that they love solving problems and working their way through challenges. And the cows didn’t hide their excitement when doing this — some literally jumped into the air from joy!

14. Cows talk about their feelings

Cows might not be queueing up for the therapist’s couch, but they do communicate their emotions. They use long, high-pitched vocalisations to express negative feelings, such as distress, and shorter, lower-pitched vocalisations to communicate positive feelings, like when they are reunited with a calf that wandered off.

15. Factory cows are forced to live in terrible conditions

We’ve already mentioned that dairy cows produce nearly 20 times more milk than they would naturally. This obviously requires an enormous amount of energy, which they can’t produce through a natural diet of grazing. Instead, they are fed concentrated food, which can cause acidosis, a metabolic condition that results in diarrhoea and even lameness.

They are also kept in crowded conditions in buildings with concrete floors, poor ventilation, and inadequate bedding which can lead to painful udder infections.

16. Cows have different personalities

The cows grazing in a field might all look the same but once you get to know them, they each have their own, individual personalities. Some are bold and like to explore while others are shy and prefer to let others take the lead.

17. Cows can enjoy being petted and cared for

Left to behave naturally, cows show a lot of physical affection. They like to lick each other, especially on the neck, to form bonds. The feeling of being stroked is relaxing and comforting.

Humans can also use touch to help calm cows. By stroking a cow on the neck, we activate this bonding sensation and reduce their fear of humans — though it’s important not to stroke them in the wild.

18. Factory farm cows are killed prematurely

Dairy cows have a life expectancy of 20 years but those subjected to factory farming only survive for five and a half years. They’re slaughtered because they no longer produce enough milk — a direct consequence of the overbreeding and intensive milking they’re subjected to during their short lives.

Female dairy calves are subjected to the same fate as their mothers, while males are considered worthless. They are either shot at birth or exported to an equally (if not more) traumatic life at low-welfare veal farms.

19. Cows deserve good lives

Cows in factory farms face short, brutal lives being exploited for their milk or meat. They’re prevented from forming natural, healthy herd relationships and suffer numerous painful, avoidable illnesses simply to increase profits.

If there’s one cow fact to take away today, though, it’s this: cows are clever, caring, sentient beings who deserve much better from us. WAP are working hard to make the changes necessary to give them the lives they deserve. We want to eliminate factory farming and create a system that feeds the world without abuse or cruelty. 

Moo-ved by the these cow facts?

Join our campaign to abolish factory farming and promote the welfare of these astonishing animals.