About Me

My name is Karin and I am certifiably, undeniably, a prairie-loving rangeland nerd, bovine enthusiast, cattle woman, and forage specialist. And a bit of an amateur photographer. All photos in this section are taken by yours truly, either with an iPhone or a Canon Rebel T6i.

I come from a mixed farm from in the "northern" part of Alberta, Canada, where I was raised working with mostly with the stocker steers we bought and sold on an annual basis, and riding the tractor with my dad with producing hay, feed barley and cash canola on our 300+ acre farm. From the beginning my interests centred on the livestock portion of the farm, working with cattle and checking the pasture--and helping with haying and making silage--as much as I could.

Though our farm is no longer in operation like it was--it is now rented to a neighbour ours after my father's sudden passing--the farming girl in me has not died. My passion and interest in agriculture and cattle took me to university where I obtained a BSc in Agriculture with an Animal Science major at the University of Alberta. I have experience with helping with research projects for a couple summers in different areas of the province with rangeland management and ecology, and also soil science and cropland research. My unofficial minor in my university studies have been forages, pasture and rangeland, and the job working in the southern half of Alberta in 2014 has simply bolstered and stoked that flame to a burning fire, which continues to this day.

My career as a forage-grazing specialist has allowed me to move on from working in the provincial government and a short stint at a local agricultural research and extension group to start my own consulting business. This business is meant to help producers with pasture management, soil health, Holistic Management, grazing management, cover crops, pasture health assessments, ruminant nutrition, and a great number of topics that fall under ruminants and grazing and feeding them.

My goal, since I joined How.com.vn 5 years ago (this is October 2021 that I've done some editing to my user page), is to not only have as many cattle articles on this site as logically possible but also to begin putting articles in on forages and plant ID. I originally came on to How.com.vn with the mindset to put as many How.com.vn articles as I dared--and fix those that needed it--about farming and cattle as possible in such a way that they were both educational and helpful to others as well. This continues on, in my spare time of course.

The following is a list of things that I've known over the years that many people don't realize or understand, and since it couldn't be put on any particular How.com.vn article, I thought it appropriate to keep it here.

Facts and Tips about Cattle and Agriculture

Fifty Facts You May Have Not Known About Cattle

1. The term "cow" should not be used as a common name for an animal, even though it often is. The name "cow" refers to the females of a particular species of animals, including domestic bovines. By definition, in terms of domestic bovines, a cow is a female mature bovine that has given birth to at least one or two calves.
   • A cow is also the name for females of other mammals, such as elephants, bison, buffalo, caribou, whales, moose, rhinos, giraffes, and other animals. There is no such thing as a "female cow," but there is such a thing as a female bovine' or female cattle beast.
2. "Male cows" don't exist either. Male bovines that are intact (not castrated) are called bulls. These animals are specifically used for breeding purposes. (Note: There is neither no such thing as a "male bull" nor a "female bull". Like as noted with cows above, the term "bull" is in reference to the gender of an animal, not the common name like with a dog or a moose.
   • The males of elephants, bison, buffalo, caribou, whales, moose, rhinos, giraffes and others are also known as bulls.
3. Male bovines which are castrated are called steers.
4. Young female bovines are called heifers if they are less than 2 years of age and have not yet given birth to a calf.
5. A calf is a general term for young cattle from birth to weaning.
6. A cow's gestation period is ~285 days long.
7. Cows give milk to their calves. Dairy cows give much more milk than beef cows.
8. There are two main types of cows: dairy cows and beef cows.
9. All cows are found on farms or ranches.
10. All cows eat some form of grass or other, whether it's fresh pasture, or stored in the form of hay or silage.
11. Cows are herbivores.
12. Cows come in a variety of colours besides black-and-white. Bulls also come in a variety of colours, and most are not all brown with horns.
13. Cows come in a variety if sizes and shapes.
14. There are over 900 breeds of cows in the world
15. There are two primary sub-species of domestic cattle. Bos primigenius taurus are European cattle like your average milk and beef cattle. Bos primigenius indicus are humped, loose-skinned, large-eared cattle that are found in hot, southern climates.
    • Desi cows of India are all of the subspecies Bos primigenius indicus.
    • A cow that is not of B. p. indicus only has sweat glands on its nose.
16. A cow only has one udder, which is divided up into 4 quarters, with a teat for each quarter.
17. A cow has hair, not fur.
18. A cow, and all ruminant animals, have a four-chambered stomach to efficiently digest roughage. The four chambers are named as follows: reticulum, rumen, omasum and abomasum. The rumen is the largest of all the stomachs, able to hold around 50 gal of digesta. The abomasum, the fourth stomach, is very similar to that of a human's stomach. The reticulum is called the "hardware" stomach because it collects foreign materials such as wire before the rest of the feed enters the rumen; the omasum acts like a sponge, extracting all water out of the digesta from the rumen before entering the abomasum.
19. Not all cows and bulls have horns. Most traditionally horned breeds are being selected for being born with no horns (called polled); however a few breeds that are horned are still encouraged to be so, such as Texas Longhorn, Scottish Highland, English Longhorn, Ankole-Watusi, Spanish Fighting Bulls, Corriente and Florida Crackers/Pineywoods, to name a few.
20. Cows are used for much more than beef and milk. No part of the cow is wasted after being slaughtered.
21. The meat from cows or cattle is called "beef."
22. The plural noun for one cow or one bovine is cattle. "Cattle" is only used when referring to a number of animals in general, without any regard for gender, age or breeding. It should never be used as a singular noun.
23. Cow, as a more general term, refers to the same animal in other names such as beeves, bovines, critters, animals, cattle-beast, beast, etc.
24. A group of cattle is called a herd, drove, mob or drift.
25. Cows can live, on average, up to 15 to 20 years of age.
26. Cows can have up to 18 to 20 offspring in their lifetime if they are long-standing, healthy, productive members of the herd.
27. Cows can weigh as little as 200 lbs for the miniature breeds, or as heavy as over 3000 lbs for the largest breeds in the world (Chianina, for instance)
28. There are four types of beef breeds: British breeds, for those who originated in the U.K (Scotland, England, Ireland), the Continental breeds, for those who originated in parts of Europe (France, Spain, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Switzerland, etc.), Composites, for those who are comprised of more than one breed (Brangus, Santa Gertrudis, Beefmasters, Senepols, etc.) and the Exotic breeds, for those who are more rarely used for beef, no matter where they are from (Highland cattle, Dexters, Texas Longhorn etc.). The exception for all of the above is the Brahman breed, which originated in America. The Brahman is considered the fourth type of beef breed because it is of a different species than the rest of the common beef cattle.
29. The most common dairy cow used in the world is the Holstein. She can produce around 10,000 gallons of milk per year.
30. Cows are found on all continents of the world except Antarctica.
31. Cows can walk upstairs, but not down them. This is because their knees cannot bend properly when they try to go down each step.
32. A dairy cow can give nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.
33. A cow can drink 25 to 30 gallons of water a day. Most often the cows that drink the most water are dairy cows or cows that are lactating.
34. A cow has 206 bones.
35. A cow doesn't bite grass, she wraps her tongue around it and uses her bottom teeth to shear it off. She doesn't use her whole head to tear off a mouthful of grass as sheep and horses do; her jaw and tongue does most of the work.
36. A cow that weighs 1000 pounds can produce an average of 12 tons of manure every year.
37. A cow usually spends 6-7 hours in a day eating cud and around 8 hours chewing it.
38. Almost all cows chew at least 50 times per minute.
39. An average cow has more than 40,000 jaw movements in a day.
40. An average cow produces 30 lbs of urine and 65 lbs pounds of feces daily.
41. A cow can only give milk after she has had a calf.
42. A cow stands up and sits down about 14 times a day.
43. Cows are venerated in the Hindu religion of India.
44. Cows have an almost 360-degree panoramic vision.
45. Cows have an acute sense of smell and can smell something up to 6 miles away.
46. Cows produce around 90 percent of the milk in the world.
47. Dairy cows can produce up to 125 lbs of saliva a day.
48. The average body temperature of a cow is 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit
49. A Holstein cow, named Robthom Suzet Paddy, holds the record for the greatest yield for a single lactation (365 days), at 59,298 lbs.
50. A cow named Cow No. 289 holds the record for the highest lifetime yield of milk for a single cow, at 465,224 lbs.
51. The highest milk yield for a single day is 241 lbs, by a cow named Urbe Blanca.
52. The oldest cow to date was Big Bertha, a Dremon, which died just 3 months shy of her 49th birthday.

Tips EVERYONE Should Know About Cattle

• Cows are mature female bovines that have had a calf. Cows are those that are over 2 years of age.
• NEVER refer a cow as a "he."
• There is no such thing as a male cow or a female cow. A cow is a female, period.
• Bulls are intact males that are used for breeding. There is no such thing as a female bull or a male bull. Bulls are male, period.
• Steers are castrated male bovines. They can also be called bullocks.
• Heifers are female bovines that have not had a calf.
• A calf is the young of a cow.
• Gestation period for a cow is 9.5 months or ~285 days.
• Don't confuse Estrus with Estrous. Estrous is the period that a female animal experiences "heat" periods and "no-heat" periods. Estrus is the period where a female is in heat.
• Cows DO NOT have periods (also called the Menstrual cycle). This is ONLY a human thing.
• Heifers are ready to breed at 15 months of age.
• Heifers become cows when they calve at 24 months of age.
• Cattle can be dangerous even when they don't mean it.
• NOT ALL BULLS HAVE HORNS. A bull isn't necessarily a bull if it doesn't have horns. Cows can have horns too, and they can also have no horns. So NEVER judge the sex of a bovine by its horns.
• Milk is generated by the udder of a cow.
• Male cattle cannot make milk.
• Milk DOES NOT have pus in it. If it would, cows, or any mammals of any sort, would not exist as they do today.
• It won't rain if you see a cow laying down.
• Cow tipping is a myth.
• Cattle don't sleep standing up
• Cattle chew what is called cud, which is just regurgitated partly-digested feed.
• Cattle have ONE stomach with FOUR chambers. They are called Ruminants.
• Cattle eat grass and hay, thus are HERBIVORES.
• Cattle do not have upper incisors, only lower ones. They do, however, have top and bottom molars.
• Backgrounding means young weaned steers and heifers being fed a forage-based diet (primarily grass and hay) before going into a hot finisher diet.
• Cow-calf simply is an operation that raises cows with calves.
• Finishing cattle means cattle go on a higher-nutrient diet to gain weight quickly before being slaughtered.
• Seek a veterinarian for any questions resulting in and concerning the health of your livestock. Only ask on here if you want to see what other people have to say, not as instructions for what to do NOR as a last resort. DO NOT sit around waiting for your article you requested to be done by someone while your animal gets sicker and sicker! For most of you who do ask about health-related problems with cattle or any other animals, I hope you have called your veterinarian immediately before or after you've requested a certain article be written or even read any animal-health related articles on here.

Farm Safety Rules Everyone Farming Needs to Know

• Be where the operator can see you, whether he is on a tractor, on a swather or in a combine.
• Always let someone know where you are going and when you will be back at all times
• Never overestimate your strength and speed when handling both machinery and livestock
• Always have an escape route
• NEVER climb over a running/spinning PTO shaft. ALWAYS walk around the machine to get to the other side.
• ALWAYS make sure the tractor and/or machine is turned off before you climb in to fix something or have a look at something.
• Check that the machine you are about to turn on is in the NEUTRAL or PARK position BEFORE you turn it on. Also, be aware of what's around you before you turn the machine on OR start moving. If any children are in the area, make sure they are at a safe distance (which is at least 50 to over 100 feet away) and that they STAY where they are. NO exceptions!
• If a child is wanting to go somewhere away from where you are working, make sure you have told the child beforehand that it is very important that they tell you where they are going before they go ANYWHERE.
• When working from any machinery, always keep an eye for things that are beside and behind you, don't just focus on what's in front of you.
• Do not wear loose clothing nor wear your hair loose when working around moving mechanical parts
• Wear eye/ear/foot protection when and where possible
• Be aware of your state of mind. If you are feeling tired, stop what you're doing and go have a coffee break or a short nap. Fatigue tends to be the number one cause in farm accidents and farm accident fatalities and serious injuries.
• NEVER get complacent around machinery OR livestock, as complacency is also a killer.
• Never EVER step in the area where grain is being fed out by an auger, as you could get caught up in the auger shaft or get buried alive by the shifting grain pile
• NEVER have children play in a grain bin with grain in it, no matter if it's full or not. I've heard a few stories where some kids died of suffocation when they got trapped in a grain pile that suddenly shifted on them
• ALWAYS keep shovels, pant legs, sleeves, collars, loose hair, etc., away from a running auger or PTO shaft or any other moving machinery
• Never get confident that hydraulics will always work and keep in place because they can and will fail
• NEVER TRUST A BULL, though horses are known to kill more humans than bulls are
  • NEVER make a pet out of a bull, EVER.
• When children are around machinery loose gates or panels or even livestock, adult supervision is MANDATORY.
• Store chemicals and pesticides away in a locked secure area
• ALWAYS watch the power lines, especially with transporting augers
• Farm machinery are NOT toys, so NEVER let a child climb up in a tractor by him/herself and expect him to know that anything he pushes or pulls won't cause the tractor to move or start to operate. If necessary, remove the keys from the ignition when the machine is not in operation.
• Wear proper clothing when working machinery and working with animals. NEVER operate machinery or work with farm animals in high-heels or loafers. Safety boots, tight or regular-fit work-type blue jeans, a shirt and a jacket, as well as gloves and a hat, are the best for working on the farm.
• USE YOUR COMMON SENSE! Often it's better to listen to your gut instinct instead of your intellect. If you are second-guessing yourself, chances are it's not worth the risk to take.
• REMEMBER Murphy's Law: Anything bad that CAN happen, WILL happen.

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