June - A Dairy Delicious Month!

What goes better with milk than cookies?

In honor of Dairy Month I have compiled a few interesting facts.

To see some specific facts concerning our farm, check out this blog: http://www.randomramblingsof.com/2012/06/my-many-mugs-of-moos.html

Americans eat about 350 slices of pizza per second. That's enough to cover more than 90 football fields a day.

On average, each American eats 33.3 pounds of cheese every year. That adds up to more than a ton of cheese during a lifetime.

If all the ice cream eaten in the U.S. annually were put into cones and stacked on top of each other, the stack would be tall enough to reach to the moon and back

Recent studies demonstrate that the nutrient composition of chocolate milk helps muscles recover faster after physical activity than other leading sports drinks.

To get the same amount of calcium provided by 3 cups of milk you would have to eat one of the following: 17 oranges, 53 potatoes, 22 cups fresh broccoli, or 13 cups red kidney beans.

It takes more cows to produce milk annually for Pizza Hut cheese (about 170,000) than there are people living in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Cows have an acute sense of smell, and can smell something up to six miles away.

Vanilla is America's favorite ice cream flavor.

The average cow produces enough milk each day to fill six one-gallon jugs, about 55 pounds of milk.

Each person in America eats an average of 46 slices of pizza a year.

All 50 states in the United States have dairy farms.

The natural yellow color of butter comes mainly from the beta-carotene found in the grass cows eat.

The average cow drinks from 30 - 50 gallons of water each day - about a bathtub's worth and eats about 95 pounds of feed.

It takes 12 pounds of whole milk to make one gallon of ice cream.

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs, because a cow's knees can't bend properly to walk back down.

Dairy cows can produce 125 lbs. of saliva a day.

A cow chews her cud (regurgitated, partially digested food) for up to 8 hours each day.

The oldest cow ever recorded was a cow named "Big Bertha"; she died 3 months short of her 49th birthday on New Year's Eve, 1993. She also holds the record for lifetime breeding as she produced 39 calves.

A cow has to be a mom before she will produce milk.

Cows only have bottom teeth

A cow can’t vomit.

Cows were domesticated about 5,000 years ago.

Cows can see color.

A 1,000 pound cow produces an average of 10 tons of manure a year.

Per day, a cow spends 6 hours eating and 8 hours chewing cud.

A cow stands up and lies down about 14 times a day.

A cow's heart beats between 60 and 70 beats per minute.

Cows can hear lower and higher frequencies better than humans.

Old cows in India have their own nursing home.

There are approximately 350 squirts in a gallon of milk.

There are an estimated 920 cow breeds in the world!

Obesity - Low-fat dairy foods such as milk, yogurt and cheese, may help control body fat, according to several studies.

Women who consumed the most calcium and ate at least 3 servings of dairy foods per day were 80% less likely to be obese than those with the lowest intake.

A low-fat diet providing 3 servings of low-fat dairy products and 8 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables, significantly lowers blood pressure as much as some medications, especially when combined with a low sodium intake.

The results of a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine show calcium may help reduce the risk of colon tumors.

Did you know we have a holiday in our calendar called
"Don't cry over spilled milk day”? Yep we sure do. February 11

Some sources of information: Source: A Field Guide to Cows , by John Pukite, Falcon Press, Helena, Montana, 1996. http://www.dairydoingmore.org/EconomicImpact/DairyFacts.aspx
http://www.crazyforcows.com/fow/fow5.shtml
http://www.gone-ta-pott.com/National_Dairy_Month.html