Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cow

Man versus Cow - how can the human emerge the victor?

tastybrains — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:29:56 -0800

Would it be possible for a regular person to kill an adult cow with their bare hands if they absolutely had to (like for reasons of self defense or honor)? If so, how would you do it?

Yes...this is for a fiction project. No...no actual cows will be harmed, I promise.)

Cow-in-a-can

avocet — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:48:45 -0800

Where could I purchase an animal-sound-in-can toy in Vancouver, BC? You know, those small cans that you tip over and upon return to the upright position they moo/baa?

Cow insertion?

Citizen Premier — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:16:33 -0800

It's going to drive me bonkers if I don't ask was this cow photoshopped in? It really looks that way to me, but I don't know enough about compression, photoshop or photography to really convince myself. It may just be a strange looking picture. But there does seem to be some unusual blurring around the cow.

Cows with new calves kept out of pasture: Why?

maxwelton — Tue, 27 May 2008 01:37:27 -0800

Moo: Our local farmer, who raises beef cattle organically (no antibiotics, no fertilizers on their home-grown feed, etc., etc.), keeps all of his cows with new calves in a plowed (dirt) field for about two months after the little ones are born. Why? I haven't seen him on the fenceline and he always looks awfully busy in any case. I'd guess he runs about 200 head of cattle and I think there were probably about 20 new calves this year.

The current theories of Mrs. Maxwelton and I:

1) He wants to strictly control the diet of the cows and calves during some critical time period in the calves development.

2) He wants to use up excess fodder from the winter storage, which would be cut hay and some maize he grows for fall harvest.

3) Perhaps that particular plot is convenient for keeping track of the critters, and having to feed them is a small price to pay to avoid having the keep track of them.

4) His main grazing field is too dangerous for calves. It's flooded during winter; if he allowed grazing in any of his other fields, he would be sacrificing the first cut of grass hay.

I expect it's either #1 or #4. We don't have too much tansy ragwort out here, so I don't think it's to keep the youngsters from ingesting a toxic plant, but that could also be a reason, obviously. Other farmers locally seem to let their cows drop calves and raise them in their regular grazing fields, for what it's worth.

Maybe I'll see him around, though I welcome any insight from y'all.

Cos more methane from mouth or dung?

beelover — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:22:29 -0800

Is it possible to say whether more methane is produced from cow feces or their mouths? How political is this topic? I thought I read in the NY Times about some studies in Australia/NZ that methane emission from cow dung may not be nearly as significant as the methane released from their mouths. I mentioned this to someone trying to harness the methane from fecal lagoons for energy and it has started a bit of a jovial debate. Apparently my friend spoke to the cow caca methane guru and is gleefully waiting to send some proof that this is not true (the guru apparently also had not nice words to say about "people like me"). Harumph to him too. Well, people like me can be hard-headed so now I am curious. I know these issues can be deeply politicized and statistics work wonders in all kinds of ways so what's the scoop on methane from poop versus mouth? Any good respected, neutral info/studies/reports out there you can point me to?

Thanks!

Cow jumps over Moon, details at eleven

misha — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:21:06 -0800

~~I am asking this for my kids~~ I am writing a book and researching what would happen (both physiologically and on a larger scope) if pure nitroglycerin were injected into a cow, which (as we all know) is just brimming over with methane? [NOT COWIST]

Where is this cow on YouTube from?

ssmith — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 14:23:32 -0800

Does anyone know where the cow that appears about 2/3's of the way though this (otherwise crappy) YouTube video is from? My 3-year-old son absolutely loves it and I'd like to see if there's more from the same animation, or even by the same studio that produced it.

the cows are back in town

thejoshu — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 11:54:41 -0800

A long time ago I cherished a shirt. It had a drawing of a whale on it, below text that read "Save The Cows." A speech bubble attached to the whale read "I am not a cow." Either that or the roles were reversed. Or they could have been different animals entirely - though I doubt that. Where did this adorable tee come from? There is nothing - NOTHING - more inside. Except your answers. I hope.

Are All-White Cows Rare?

cell divide — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 16:23:27 -0800

Are pure white (non albino) cows rare? A friend of mine is a farmer, and recently an all-white cow was born on their farm, from parents that are brown with a few white spots. After seeing the stories about all-white buffalo being born, and that they were very rare/prized/etc. he was wondering if white cows are also rare. The cow on his ranch was born all-white with a few small spots, it has blue eyes (not albino).

So, is this cow rare? How rare? Is it valuable?

how many bones do a pig, cow, and sheep skeleton have?

Nik_Doof — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:51:08 -0800

how many bones do a pig, cow, and sheep skeleton have? My other half is currently studying a faunal module at university, and today she rang me up asking to do a search on how many bones a pig, cow, sheep actually have. I've tried searching but came up with nothing. Does anyone know?

How much meat is there on a cow?

barbelith — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 10:18:20 -0800

How many steaks (or how much meat) is there on a cow and how long would it take you to eat at the rate of one meal a day? In this old article about a man who wears hats made out of lamb fetuses, someone justifies the killing by saying that if you ate a steak every day for a year that you'd be killing many cows. My thinking is that probably this would constitute very few cows and that his argument is ludicrous and fallacious. But I need your help to conclusively prove that the random guy in some old article is basically talking rubbish.