What the hell is this all about?????? AJH -----Original Message----- From: Don L. Jackson To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Date: Thursday, February 26, 1998 08:16 Subject: OT: Intro to Bovines 101 >At 11:26 AM 02/26/1998 -0400, you wrote: >>Not even a vendor >>who understands your needs - their vendors have the same knowledge about >>software as I have about raising cows (the only thing I know about a cow is >>that they have four legs, say "booooooo...ooooooh", produce milk and meat, >>but that's all......). >> >>Albert Smulders >>InSAD - Encarnacion, Paraguay >>insad@itacom.com.py > >As much as I tried to restrain myself, I just could not resist replying to >this! > >Sorry, I cannot do anything about your vendor understanding software, but >here are a few additional pieces of information to add to your knowledge >about cows: > >1. At least the cows I've heard in the northern hemisphere, they say >"moooooo...ooooooh" amongst other noises. >2. Yes, most of them have four legs. They also come in a variety of >colors, mostly favoring shades of brown, black, and white. >3. The cow is the female of the bovine species. The male is called a bull >originally when born (a "bullet"?), but most are "downgraded" to a steer >for better control and meat production. Bulls/steers usually do not >produce milk. >4. They have multiple stomachs. Their chewing is programmed into a loop -- >between stomach and mouth cavity. What they chew is often called a "cud". >5. Cows usually eat grass or similar things. In the old days they did this >in fields called "pastures". Now often they are kept in confined "feed lots". >6. Milk is stored in a cow's udder which usually has four (but sometimes >more) "spigots". The process of getting the milk out of the cow is called >"milking", most often today done with a machine, but previously done by hand. >7. Most cows I have known were milked twice a day. A person or farm dog >may go after them in the pasture to round them up and bring to a barn for >milking -- some herds (a group of cows) are smart enough to meander back >"home" around milking time. That's where the expression about the "cows >coming home" comes from. >8. You can see a picture of two cows on the web page http://www.tucows.com >9. The newborn bovine is called a "calf" and several are called "calves" in >the English language. >10. Some cows have horns (not the musical or noisemaking type), others have >been de-horned. >11. Besides producing milk and meat, cows also produce fertilizer, often >called by various names such as "cow pies", "pasture patties", etc. >12. The meat of cows is generally called beef. Veal is the name used for >calf meat. >13. I am not sure if cows ever sleep. Even when driving in the middle of >the night, you can see them in pastures eating. Maybe someone can help >here on this. >14. The cow is sacred in some countries. > >...all this from a "city boy" who had a lot of relatives as cow farmers in >the state of Wisconsin, "America's Dairyland". I could go on for a lot >more, but I'm sure that others can contribute greatly to your cow knowledge >base too (and correct any misinformation I gave) ;-) > >Gotta get mooooooooooving... > >Don L. Jackson (now in Arizona, USA)