Cow
Bos taurus

Cattle, or cows, are large mammals. They have been domesticated by people for at least 8,000 years. Hundreds of breeds of cattle exist, providing milk, meat, and help pulling wagons and plows. Some of the cow’s wild bovid ancestors— the Zoo’s American Bison and Musk Ox—still roam the Earth today. Watch our milking demo video.

What They Eat
Cows eat grasses in pastures or are fed a mix of plants and nutrients. Their 4-part stomachs, allow them to eat these plants that most other animals could never digest. One cow may eat as much as 95 pounds a day. Check out our cow digestive activity.

Where They Live
Cattle live wherever people live but are best suited to places with grass for grazing. Different breeds around the world have traits that relate to their surroundings. Brahman cattle in India, for example, have a thin, glossy coat that helps reflect that region’s intense sun and heat. Ayrshires are particularly good at finding food. They come from Scotland, where grazing plants were sparse.

What They Do
Cows spend as much as four out of every six hours eating and chewing. Along with other ruminants, they chew and digest, then re-chew and re-digest their grassy diet. In cows, this re-chewing is called “chewing cud.” Cows chew their cud to get energy from food.

How They’re Doing
There may be more cows on earth right now than at any point in history. But some kinds, or breeds, are very rare. Dutch Belted cattle, for instance, are critically rare, with only a few hundred head in the U.S. The Zoo’s dairy herd includes Dutch Belted cattle to ensure that such rare breeds survive.

Cow

Milking machines collect milk squirting out from the udder of a female cow. There are about 350 “squirts” in the average gallon.

To help their food go down, a typical cow produces a bathtub-full of saliva a day.

Here’s one pie you won’t want to eat: When cows produce manure, or waste, the waste often plops down in a round splat on the ground—known as a “cow pie.” This is valuable fertilizer.

Cows have no upper front teeth. Although they have a total of 32 teeth, they have none in the middle of the upper jaw. This means cows have to swing their heads to tear grasses up from their roots.

Helpful hints for viewing the animals

The Wells Fargo Family Farm, is open from April through November.  During those months, you can view the animals best by visiting the stalls of the dairy barn. Or you can go to one of the 3 daily milking sessions. A schedule for the day’s milking sessions is available at the Zoo’s Guest Services desk.

Calves are born year round, but there are usually a few more births in springtime than in other seasons. Guest Services can tell you if any new calves are at the Farm.

Allow plenty of travel time to get to the Dairy Barn from the Zoo entrance. Access to the Wells Fargo Family Farm is about halfway around the 1.4 mile Northern Trail Loop.

 

Cow

The Wells Fargo Family Farm includes a small herd of dairy cattle, or cows raised to produce milk. These cows range from large black-and-white spotted Holsteins to small brown Jerseys. When the farm is open, visitors are invited to watch the cows being milked during three demonstrations daily in the Milking Parlor.

Meet the Animals

The Wells Fargo Family Farm exhibits a range of breeds, from rare to common. These may change somewhat from year to year but generally include Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Dutch Belted, Holstein, and Jersey. Be on the lookout for the Zoo’s rare Dutch Belted. Part of the Zoo’s commitment to nurturing rare animals.

"Lantz 2"
The Zoo exhibits a cloned bull named Lantz 2. He serves as a valuable educational tool, giving Zoo visitors a chance to learn about and discuss issues in the future of farming. Because Lantz 2 is a bull, visitors are not allowed to come close enough to pet him.

Home on the Farm

The Zoo’s cattle live in the Dairy Barn. The traditional red barn contains cow stalls, a hayloft, and the Milking Parlor. The barn is designed to keep the cows warm during Minnesota’s cold winters. In fact, the Zoo’s herd puts out enough body heat to warm the barn all winter. In summer, fans cool down the cows and keep them comfortable.

From outside the stalls, you can pet the animals as they eat from mangers. As long as they stay in their area, the cows have good access to their feed. And their manure—which tends to plop down in a gutter—is easier to clean up! Between feedings and trips to the Milking Parlor, the cows go outside to eat and exercise.

In the Milking Parlor, cows are milked 3 times per day. Each milking session lasts about 15 minutes. Visitors are encouraged to visit during milking demonstrations and ask questions of Zoo staff.

Along with watching the milking demonstrations, you can also check out the bulk tank. That’s where milk is collected and stored. A milk tanker truck picks up milk every 2 to 3 days. After the milk goes onto the tanker truck, farm staff clean the barn’s bulk tank. They also wash up milking machines and other equipment after each use to keep things clean.

The Wells Fargo Family Farm is licensed as a Grade A Dairy Farm. That means the farm can process its raw milk into Grade A milk, cheese, and butter. It also means that the farm meets all state and federal standards.

Care at the Zoo

Since the Farm is a working farm, cattle are raised as they are on many Minnesota farms. Baby cows, or calves, are born year-round. Their first caregivers are their mothers, who clean them by licking them over with sand-papery tongues.

After that clean-up, calves are shifted to nearby hut until their immune system gets stronger. Staff at the farm feed the calves bottles filled with colostrum This rich milk is produced by the cow for the first 2-3 days. Calves later drink a milk-like supplement. They are weaned—or taken off the bottle in 4 to 6 weeks.

Cattle at the Wells Fargo Family Farm are cared for by a range of Zoo staff members. Staff oversee the herd’s feeding and nutrition. They keep the bedding in stalls fresh. They groom each herd member, and they make sure there’s always a good water supply in the Dairy Barn. Farm staff at the Zoo take charge of medical problems. They also carefully watch the health of pregnant females and newborn calves.

Not all cattle born at the Zoo become members of the dairy herd. The Wells Fargo Family Farm is a dairy farm, and only females can produce milk. Males are sold. At about 15 months of age, young females (called heifers) are bred so that they become pregnant.

Successfully bred cows carry their babies—usually 1 per pregnancy—for about 9 months. After giving birth, the mother cow’s real working life begins. That’s when Zoo staff introduce her to the milking machine. With good care and nutrition, most dairy cows will produce milk for 10 months per year.

Cow

What’s a Breed?
A breed is a group of animals or plants sharing common ancestors and many of the same traits. When it comes to cattle, people have bred more than 800 varieties worldwide. Farmers continue to breed cattle to emphasize valuable traits. Breeding may make cattle more productive, improve the taste of their milk, or help them function in different environmental conditions.

So Many Kinds
Breeds have arisen because people want cattle with specific traits. Holsteins are bred to make more milk than any breed. People raising Holsteins have selected different herd members who were good milk producers for breeding. This process is called selective breeding.

Over time, careful selective breeding preserves and enhances specific traits within a breed. That’s exactly how Holsteins have become top milk producers.

Breeds at the Zoo
To skip to a particular breed, click on a breed name below:
Ayrshire
Brown Swiss
Dutch Belted
Holstein
Jersey

Ayrshire

Physical description
The Ayrshire dairy cow is known for its red and white coloring, with small jagged-edged spots scattered all over the animal’s body. These spots range in color from reddish-brown to almost black. Purebred Ayrshires produce only young with red and white spots.

Today most Ayrshires have their horns removed when they are calves. But in the past, the breed was known for elegant and gracefully curved horns that grew to nearly a foot in length.

Ayrshires have long, straight faces and strong, solid legs and feet. Their udders are well attached to the body and give the cow a pleasing shape, as well as making the milking process easy for dairy farmers.

Ayrshires are medium-sized dairy cattle. When fully grown, cows weigh somewhat over 1,200 pounds, and bulls average more than 1,800 pounds.

Breed characteristics
Aside from its looks, the Ayrshire is known for its ability to find grass and other plants for grazing even in harsh conditions. It’s also valued for its overall vigor and hardiness. This is a strong, rugged dairy cow that can adapt to bad weather conditions and poor grazing land. That adaptability means Ayrshire cattle today live and thrive in diverse areas around the world, from the mountains of Columbia, to the warm South African plains, to their native Scotland.

Ayrshires consistently produce rich milk under varying climate and grazing conditions. Typical cows average as much as 17,000 pounds of milk and 700 pounds of butterfat per cow in a year.  Some above-average Ayrshires produce more than 20,000 pounds of milk over 305 days of milking annually.

Breed history
Back before 1800, farmers in Ayrshire, in southwest Scotland, first developed the breed. The county (or shire in Gaelic) of Ayr wasn’t the most hospitable place. Cattle needed to be hardy to survive there. Farmers likely first began breeding cattle—those that would eventually become Ayrshires—around 1750. Farmers crossed some native cattle with other breeds to produce a hardy milk producer and good forager. Early names for the Ayrshire include the Dunlop and the Cunningham.

The main ancestors of the Ayrshire were Teeswater cattle from near the Tees River in northern England. (Teeswater cattle would later be the main source of blood for the Shorthorn breed.) Other cattle, including possibly some from the Channel Islands—home to the Guernsey and Jersey breeds—were also added to improve the stock. Since native cattle of the Scottish Highlands weren’t known for being good milk producers, farmers added any available improved stock to the breed. These early breeders used selective breeding—the careful breeding of animals to enhance traits—to form what became known as the Ayrshire breed, which was formally recognized in 1814.

The breed was wonderfully adapted to the climate and conditions in Ayrshire. But it showed its adaptability even more once it traveled beyond its native Scotland. The first Ayrshires are thought to have been brought to the United States, in Connecticut, in around 1822. New England winters were just as harsh as those in Ayrshire, so the breed adapted well to its new environment.

Today, Ayrshire cattle are spread across the United States, even into the deep South. States with the greatest numbers of registered Ayrshires include New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Vermont.

Brown Swiss

Physical description
Brown Swiss dairy cattle, as the name suggests, come in various shades of brown, usually with lighter brown underneath. While this breed resembles the Jersey, it is larger and more rugged-looking. Dairy cows average 1,400 pounds, while bulls weigh about 2,000 pounds.

The Brown Swiss has large furry, or fuzzy, ears. After a black nose and tongue, a patch of white spreads back along the muzzle, giving it a banded appearance. Its switch, or tail, is also black, and the tips of its short horns are dark.

Breed characteristics
Brown Swiss dairy cattle are prized for their ability to produce milk that is high in butterfat and protein, making it ideal for cheese production.  Only Holsteins give more milk than Brown Swiss dairy cows. The breed is known for having strong feet and legs. Together, these characteristics make Brown Swiss excellent, long-lived milk producers.

Brown Swiss cows are very docile, even-tempered and not easily excited. They are also very adaptable. Having originated in the high, cold, and rugged Swiss Alps, the breed has since spread around the world. Brown Swiss live in Europe, on the plains of the American Midwest, and even in the hot climates of the Dominican Republic and Brazil.

Breed history
Some experts suggest that the Brown Swiss is the oldest cattle breed, dating back hundreds if not thousands of years.However, tracing the precise history of a breed is very difficult. We may never know the exact origins of the Brown Swiss, but we do know when the breed first rose to prominence.

In the early 1800s, improvements in cheese production meant that farmers in the Swiss Alps were looking for good milk-producing cows. This demand eventually led to the Brown Swiss breed, which was developed by farmers in the Swiss cantons, or states, of Schwyz, Zug, St. Gallen, Glarus, Lucern, and Zurich. Because farmers in Schwyz did much of the work of early improvement, the breed is sometimes called Schwyer or Brown Schwyzer. Other names for the breed include Braunvieh and Schweitz.

The breed developed largely from smaller native cattle who were adapted to the harsh winters, torrential rains, and summer pastures of the high mountains. Swiss-German farmers of the area are thought to have brought in larger German cattle to improve the stock. Austrian cattle of the Pinzgaur breed were also part of the mix.

Brown Swiss cattle in America today look somewhat different from their Swiss ancestors. Still, they possess the same adaptability and milk-producing qualities. Brown Swiss were first brought to the United States in 1869 by Henry M. Clark of Belmont, MA, who purchased a bull and several females in the Swiss canton of Schwyz. By the time the Brown Swiss was declared an American dairy breed in 1906, farmers had bred the cattle to be bigger than their European ancestors. Today, the states with the largest numbers of Brown Swiss include Wisconsin, Iowa, and Ohio.

Dutch Belted

Physical description
With a band of white around the middle of its black body, the Dutch Belted breed has a distinctive look. Typically the belt starts just behind the animal’s shoulders and covers the midsection, almost to the hips. The white belt goes all the way around the body and extends to the udders as well.

The striking look of the Dutch Belted made the breed popular among kings and noblemen in centuries past. It still attracts many farmers to the breed today. Dutch Belted dairy cattle are medium-sized, somewhat smaller than Holsteins and bigger than Jerseys. Dairy cows average around 1,500 pounds, while bulls typically weigh about 2,200 pounds.

Breed characteristics
Along with their distinctive belted appearance, Dutch Belted dairy cattle have several characteristics that distinguish them from other breeds. They are known for producing easily digestible milk that is good for drinking. These cattle are also good foragers, easily finding grasses to eat when grazing.

Dutch Belted cattle are small boned, which tends to make it easier for females to give birth. Females calve earlier than many other breeds, producing 1 calf per year.

Dutch Belted cattle are also known for their friendly dispositions. But although Dutch Belted cattle have many positive characteristics, the breed is in danger.

The Dutch Belted is considered a critically rare breed. Today, some farmers choose to raise these cattle because of their rarity, in order to ensure that the breed’s unusual characteristics survive for future generations to enjoy. The Wells Fargo Family Farm includes Dutch Belted dairy cattle in its herd—part of the Zoo’s ongoing commitment to nurturing rare and unusual animals.

Breed history
The Dutch Belted breed traces its history back to belted, or “canvassed,” cattle from Switzerland and Austria. These cattle, called Gurtenvieh, were brought by Dutch nobles into the Netherlands. The Dutch Belted breed was well established in the Netherlands by the mid-1700s. Known as Lakenvelders, they were prized by the Dutch for their striking belted look. But the breed did not spread widely until the 1800s.

In 1838, the first Dutch Belted cattle were brought to the United States. By 1840, the breed had found its American champion in P. T. Barnum, a celebrity and showman. Barnum praised the breed for its noble background and for its milking ability. He exhibited his herd as part of his well-known circus. Barnum’s herd—eventually moved to a farm in Orange County, NY—was vital to the beginning of the breed in the United States. Farmers established the Dutch Belted Cattle Association of America in 1886.

The breed went into decline in the United States and in the Netherlands in the 1970s. But American farmers with purebred stock were able to help prevent the breed from becoming extinct. Some American breeders sent sperm from their Dutch Belted bulls to the breed’s native Netherlands, where only a handful of herds still existed.

Although still considered critically endangered, by 2007 there were about 1,000 individual animals worldwide.  With the support of breeders and organizations such as the Minnesota Zoo, the Dutch Belted breed should continue to survive. 

Holstein

Physical description
The Holstein is one of the most easily recognized of dairy breeds. It is a large, striking-looking white cow with big—usually black—spots. Those spots generally cover about half of the Holstein’s body. Some Holsteins with a recessive trait are spotted with red, and it’s not uncommon to see them mixed into the usual black-and-white herd. The Zoo’s herd includes cattle of both colors.

Holstein dairy cows average about 1,500 pounds when full grown, while bulls weigh about 2,200 pounds. These are tall animals, with mature cows standing 58 inches at the shoulder.

Nearly all Holsteins are polled, meaning that they are either naturally hornless or have had their horns removed. This, along with their distinctive black-and-white coloring, makes them easy to pick out from other breeds grazing in a field.

Breed characteristics 
Holsteins are the top milk-producing dairy breed. In 1999, American Holsteins averaged  21,167 pounds of milk, 775 pounds of butterfat, and 683 pounds of protein. Many farmers choose Holsteins for their milk-producing abilities alone, but Holsteins are also attractive animals that adapt easily to different environments. Although they may live for as long as 20 years, most are sent to slaughter much earlier. Because Holsteins generally produce milk for only about 6 years, they are to some extent a dual-purpose breed, providing both milk and beef.

Breed history
The Holstein breed originated in Northern Holland and Friesland, part of what is now the Netherlands. The breed probably developed from the intermixing of black and white cows brought by migrant Europeans to the area about 2,000 years ago. In the Holstein’s native area—along the Zuiderzee, an inlet from the North Sea—grass was plentiful. Cows were bred to make good use of that resource.

In 1621, Holsteins were brought to the North American colonies by the Dutch. But these Holsteins were allowed to mix with other breeds and did not remain purebred. It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that the breed was brought again to the United States and kept pure, or unmixed with other breeds.

Winthrop Chenery, from Massachusetts, bought what was then known as a “Holland” or “Dutch” cow from a ship entering the port of Boston in 1852. (The cow had provided the ship’s crew with milk for the voyage from Holland.) Chenery was impressed enough by this cow to import more over the next 10 years. Other dairy farmers, attracted by the Holstein’s milking abilities, also began importing the breed.

Today, the Holstein (also known as the Holstein-Friesian) is the most popular breed of dairy cattle in the United States. About 9 out of every 10 American dairy cows are Holsteins, and the breed is popular worldwide, with herds in Australia, South America, and South Africa.

Jersey

Physical description
Jersey cattle are small—the smallest of the dairy breeds. Bulls average about 1,500 pounds, while mature cows weigh about 1,000 pounds.

The Jersey’s coat tends to be a shade of fawn (a pale red-yellow brown). But Jerseys may also be cream colored, gray, brown, a gray-brown mix, or nearly black. Some Jerseys are spotted with white, and this variation is called “colored.” All Jerseys tend to be darker on the hips, head, and shoulders than on the rest of the body.

The Jersey’s muzzle is most often black with a light band around it. Jerseys frequently have a dark tongue and switch, along with small, in-turning horns.

Breed characteristics 
Jersey dairy cattle are famous for the milk they produce. Their milk has a higher percentage of butterfat and protein than that of any other breed. Jerseys are smaller than other well-known milk-producing breeds, such as Holsteins. Compared to Holsteins, they use less feed to produce milk and require less labor. A typical Jersey cow can produce more than 13 times its own weight in milk during each lactation—the period of time between calvings when the cow produces milk.

Jersey cows can be more nervous than others, but they are gentle and well behaved, with appealing doe-like brown eyes. Jersey bulls, in contrast, are known for being unpredictable. They are less calm and docile than bulls from any of the other common dairy cattle breeds. A Jersey bull that has reached the age of 18 months should not be trusted.

Both bulls and cows adapt well to different climates. Jerseys are particularly adaptable to heat and are known for being good grazers. Today, this breed can be found around the world, from Japan to Australia, from England to South Africa, from Canada and the United States to New Zealand.

Breed history
The Jersey cow originated on the Island of Jersey, in the English Channel off the northern coast of France. The Jersey’s ancestors probably came from nearby Brittany and Normandy in France, hundreds of years ago. Thought to be one of the oldest dairy breeds, the Jersey resulted from a mix of Norman brindles and small black cattle from Brittany. In this way, the Jersey’s history is similar to that of the Guernsey breed, which originated on the neighboring Channel island of Guernsey.

Even more so than the Guernsey, however, the Jersey breed is extremely well adapted to hot climates. This fact has led some breed historians to contend that the Jersey shares similarities—and perhaps some ancestry—with cattle breeds from North Africa and subtropical India.

The Jersey is said to have been purebred for nearly 600 years, and is thought to have been present on the island for 1,000 years. Since the Island of Jersey is small (only 45 square miles), farmers developed unusual grazing techniques.  Cows were tethered by their horns to a spike in the pasture, grazing in a circular pattern before being moved to another location.

Jerseys were known in England by 1771, when they were often referred to as “Alderneys.” This name, also frequently given to Guernseys, comes from the fact that nearly all Channel Island cattle imported to England came through Alderney, the northernmost of the Channel Island group, on their way to English ports.

By the mid-1800s, the Jersey breed had traveled to the United States, where it became popular among dairy farmers. Probably the best-known American Jersey is Elsie the cow, a Jersey selected in 1939 by the Borden Company to be used in advertising canned condensed milk.

 

 

Cow

If you want to know more about cattle, look no further. This Cow Handbook contains general information on cows and specifics about cows at the Minnesota Zoo’s Wells Fargo Family Farm.

To help you navigate through the wealth of information, here’s a quick topic finder:

• What Is a Cow?
• Beef Cattle
• Dairy Cattle
• Cloned Cattle

What Is a Cow?

Cattle are different things to different people, around the globe and through time. Cattle feed us with their milk and meat. Some have been used by people as money. Still others entertain us at rodeos and bullfights.

Scientists will tell you that cattle are members of the class Mammalia, making them relatives of all mammals, including humans. They belong to the scientific order Artiodactyla, which means they’re related to other hoofed mammals with an even number of toes on each hoof.

Within the order Artiodactyla, cattle belong to a suborder consisting of ruminants, animals that chew their cud and have multi-chambered stomachs. (Other ruminants include sheep, giraffes, deer, and camels.) Cows have 4-chambered stomachs. When a cow eats, it chews, swallows, then brings food back up from one of the chambers for re-chewing. This process is known as ruminating, or chewing the cud.

Cattle belong to the family Bovidae. Members of the family Bovidae share a common trait. They have hollow horns.

All cattle are part of  the genus Bos, but they can be members of one of two species. The vast majority of cattle we know in the United States belong to the species taurus. Their scientific name is Bos taurus. Cattle with large humps on their shoulders—such as the Brahman cattle of India—belong to a different species. They are called Bos indicus.

Cattle are domestic animals, or animals adapted to live in a close relationship with humans. Another name for domestic is “tame.” Domestic animals are cared for and bred by people because they offer people some benefit. With cows, that benefit lies in the milk dairy cattle produce, the beef that comes from steers, and the help that draft animals can offer in pulling plows and wagons.

Cattle and humans share a history of living and working together for more than 8,000 years. Scientists speculate that people first tamed or domesticated cattle somewhere in southwestern Asia during the early part of the New Stone Age.

Today’s domestic cattle are related to wild cattle. Some of these larger members of the Bovidae family, such as American Bison (Bison bison)and Musk Oxen (Ovibos moschatus), can be seen at the Minnesota Zoo.

Over the centuries, people have treated cattle in a variety of ways. In Iran, cattle were sacrificed to the gods. In India, cattle are sacred to followers of the Hindu religion. Cows are considered so holy in India that they are not eaten but are allowed to wander the streets.

In ancient times, cattle were used as money. In fact, the word cattle, comes from the Latin word capitale, which means wealth or property. In some parts of the world, a person’s wealth is still measured by the number of cattle that person owns. Cows are so valuable that stealing cattle has sometimes been punished by death.

Almost everywhere, cattle have been a source of food—milk, cheese, and meat—for people. Humans have used cow hides and bones for weapons, shelter, and clothing. And cattle known as oxen have worked as draft animals, pulling plows and carrying heavy loads.

Generally speaking, cattle fall into one of three types—beef, dairy, or draft (the pulling and carrying kind of cattle). But some cattle are dual-purpose. Cattle might start out life, for example, on a dairy farm and then be butchered and eaten when they no longer produce much milk. Read on for more information on the two largest types of cattle: beef and dairy.

Beef Cattle

How can you identify beef cattle? They’re usually very muscular in appearance. Their overall shape is rectangular, while a dairy cow is more wedgelike (looking more like the head of an ax).

Beef cattle have been bred so that they are extremely efficient at converting their feed into high quality meat. A typical 1,000-pound mature steer will yield as much as 450 pounds of meat when it is slaughtered. The largest beef-producing states are Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, California, Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Colorado, Montana, and Indiana.

As with all cows, beef cattle are natural grazers. If they are allowed to graze and given good pasture, they will thrive on a diet of grass.

In the past in the American West, beef cattle grazed over acres of open rangeland. Then they were driven to markets in towns like Dodge City, KS, and Abilene, TX. Today, most beef cattle are fed a diet of grasses and cereal grains, such as wheat, barley, and corn.

At birth, a beef calf weighs about 80 pounds. It gains weight fast on a diet of milk and grasses. When it is weaned at 6-7 months, a calf normally weighs 350-650 pounds.

After weaning, some calves will go directly to feedlots. There, they eat specially formulated feeds until they are “finished,” or fattened and grown to maturity. These animals are processed into veal, the meat of  a young calf.

Other calves continue to graze for some time before they are moved into feedlots. There, beef cattle are fattened and slaughtered at 15-24 months. At that age, beef cattle typically weigh 1,000-1,400 pounds.

Dairy Cattle

Compared to muscular beef cattle, dairy cattle are leaner and more angular. While beef cattle have a regular rectangular shape, dairy cattle are more wedgelike. The shape of a dairy cow is a bit like that of the head of an ax.

Dairy cows have a large udder hanging down between their rear legs. The udder consists of large mammary glands and nipples or teats, from which calves drink—or from which milking machines extract milk.

Dairy cattle are bred to ensure that they efficiently convert the energy found in their feed into milk. The top 6 milk-producing states are California, Wisconsin, New York, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota.

At birth dairy calves weigh about 80 pounds, or the same as beef cattle. Dairy calves generally do not stay long with their mothers.

Initially, they are bottle-fed on colostrum. This is a rich milk, that mothers produce for a 2-3 days after giving birth. Then calves are switched to a milk replacement supplement. This supplement consists of dried milk and nutrients and is reconstituted with warm water.

Dairy calves are weaned at about 4-6 weeks. From that point on, they eat the same solid feed that grown cows eat.

At the Minnesota Zoo’s Wells Fargo Family Farm, calves live in individual “calf hutches,” located outside the Dairy Barn until they are weaned. Then they move into the dairy barn.

Heifers, young females, are first bred when they are about 15 months old. If mating is successful, the heifer will carry her baby for a gestation period of about 9 months, or 277-290 days.

After giving birth, the cow begins to produce milk. A lactating dairy cow (one that produces milk) is usually fed ground grains and nutritional supplements. She may also be fed hay and corn silage (chopped and fermented corn plants).

Typically, a dairy cow will produce milk for 10 months per year, followed by a 2-month dry period. Outside of her dry period, a cow can produce 1,350-3,600 pounds of milk each month. That’s 160-430 gallons of milk in a month—or a lot to pour over cornflakes! The amount varies based on the breed of cow, its size, and the cow’s food and water intake.

The goal of most dairy farmers is to make the most milk at the lowest cost. On a typical dairy farm, money spent on feed accounts for nearly half of all the money spent on milk production. Lowering feed costs, then, is one of the dairy farmer’s main goals. Generally, farmers look for a balanced diet that will help cows produce more milk.

Dairy cows are big eaters. On average, they eat 11-14 meals each day. Each meal lasts about 20 minutes. That means cows chow down at the manger 3-5 hours each day. As ruminants, they spend additional time re-chewing their food, part of  a process known as chewing cud.

About how much do dairy cows eat? Here’s a quick example: A 1,320-pound cow that’s producing 66 pounds of milk in a day should eat about 46 pounds of dry matter every day. That dry matter should be balanced with a lot of liquid. Dairy farmers always make sure their cows have access to a generous supply of water. As a general rule, higher-producing cows need higher levels of feed and water if they are to continue producing lots of milk.

Dairy cows are usually milked until they are 6-7 years old, although some can live for 20 years. There are differences according to breed. Holsteins, for example, are often bred at 13 months, 2 months earlier than other breeds. They calve, or bear their first young, at 22 months. After that, they are typically milked for only 3-4 years.

At the Minnesota Zoo’s Wells Fargo Family Farm, staff members work hard to ensure that each herd member has a long and productive life.

Cloned Cattle

The Minnesota Zoo’s cattle herd is unusual in that it contains a cloned bull, named Lantz 2, loned to us by ABS Global. Cloning is a controversial process. It involves making an identical copy of an original animal. When an animal is cloned, it shares the same genetic make-up as the original animal.

The Minnesota Zoo exhibits Lanzt 2 in order to introduce visitors to cloning, to explain what the process entails, and to encourage people to study and debate cloning. Some breeders feel that cloning is an exciting innovation that will bring better dairy cattle to farmers. Others find that cloning is a costly technique that can’t equal natural breeding or artificial insemination. Through Lanzt 2, Zoo visitors can see a real, breathing clone and find out more about this unusual technique.

Cloning is done in several steps. First, some DNA is taken from the original animal. Tissue may be taken, for example, from a cow with superior milk production. That tissue is cultured in a protein mix.

Next, unfertilized eggs are taken from a cow’s ovaries. After the nuclei is removed from each egg, a protein cell from the original tissue sample is inserted into it. At this point, an electrical charge is applied to fuse the cell to the egg.

In about a week’s time, the nucleus should have formed a hollow ball of cells around an embryonic “stem cell.” That stem cell carries all of the genetic instructions needed for making an animal that is an identical copy of the original cow tissue donor.

The embryo is then implanted inside the womb of a healthy animal. For cloned cows, the gestation time is 9 months—the same as for any other pregnancy. The newborn calf is biologically identical to the original donor cow.

Cloning is a very expensive way of producing cattle. The cost averages between $5,000 and $20,000 per animal. Only about 10% of pregnancies lead to successful live births. And some cloned animals do not survive long after birth.

Because cloning creates copies, it does not add to genetic diversity. However, it can be a viable means of genetically “tailoring” herds of livestock to suit the needs of the farmer.

Future dairy farmers, for example, could use cloning to create herds with more efficient milk and meat producers. They might also be able to clone individual cows whose milk can be used to produce essential drugs.

Cloned cattle came to the Minnesota Zoo in 2000. In that year, Infigen Inc., a company in DeForest, WI, gave the Zoo a cloned Holstein bull named Gene.

Gene was the world’s first cloned bovine. During the summer of 2000, Infigen Inc. loaned the Wells Fargo Family Farm two other cloned cows: twin Holsteins named Cookies and Cream. They were followed by two more Holsteins named Carbon and Copy. All of these cloned cattle have since been returned to Infigen.

Currently, the only cloned cattle at the Minnesota Zoo is Lantz 2, a cloned bull. He weighs about 3,000 pounds and was born in April 2000.

Lantz 2 is not used for breeding. He is separated from the rest of the dairy herd at the Minnesota Zoo. This is because the Zoo’s dairy cows are bred by artificial insemination, a common method used throughout the dairy industry today.

Like many other bulls, Lantz 2 wears a ring in his nose. This allows Zoo staff to lead him or tether him with a rope. The device is used to control bulls and does not hurt the animal any more than body piercing hurts humans, beyond the initial piercing.

Bulls are large and extremely strong. They are also willful animals and will not always do what their handlers want them to do. For these reasons, Zoo visitors are not allowed to reach or pet Lantz 2. A strong fence surrounds his paddock.

Lantz 2 serves as a teaching tool. He allows Zoo visitors—including young future farmers—to imagine and discuss what the future might hold.