What Do Dairy Cows Eat?

Foods That We Can’t . . .

Silage: made in Hay: dried Pasture grasses. I won’t

silos; fermented grass or alfalfa. eat that
stuff!
grasses, alfalfa,
or corn.

. . . including leftovers from what

people eat (byproduct feeds).

We Eat or Use Byproducts Cows Eat

Cooking oil from soybeans Soybean Meal
Sugar from sugar beets Beet Pulp
Cotton for clothes Cottonseeds
Beer from barley, hops Brewers Grains
Juice from oranges Citrus pulp I think I’ll
stick with
Sugar for soda from corn Corn gluten feed my school
Chocolate, gummy bears Candy waste lunch!
Stale donuts, cakes, bread Bakery waste
How Much Do Dairy Cows Eat?
Cows drink 30–50 gallons of
water each day – a bathtub full.

than 100 pounds of

re
Cows eat mo y – often in a meal
a
feed every d l Mixed Ration.
called a Tota

If you ate like a cow Total Mixed Rations

you would have to eat are like the casseroles we
360 cheeseburgers eat: All of the feed is mixed
and drink 600 cartons up to make sure each cow
gets a balanced diet. Huge
of milk every day! mixers are used to mix all
of the feed ingredients.
co al e al
t f n an ms
x 600/day! vit ton alfa
am se c
r
o be al
r
ins ed soy ine
m

x 360/day!
Rumens make cows special!
What is a rumen? The Rumen
 The first of 4 compartments in a Gas layer
cow’s stomach.
 It is full of bacteria and protozoa that Mat of feed
help the cow digest rough feed -- the
kind we can’t eat.
 The bacteria and protozoa are also a Liquid layer
good source of protein for the cow!

What is a ruminant?
Any hooved animal that
Why Do Cows Chew
digests its food in steps: Their Cuds?
1. eat the feed; This
2. regurgitate (bring back up) is so good I
the semi-digested feed (cud); think I’ll chew
3. chew, swallow, and digest it again!
the cud some more.
Ruminants include:
cows sheep goats A ‘cud’ is food that a cow
deer elk buffalos brings back up to chew some
bison giraffes camels more. She will swallow food,
llamas wildebeest antelope digest it some, bring it back
up to chew again, swallow
and digest some more . . .
until the food is ready to
move on. This allows cows
to use foods that we could
never eat.

U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center -- USDA Agricultural Research Service May copy for educational purposes.
1925 Linden Dr. West, Madison, WI 53706
(608) 890-0050 http://ars.usda.gov/mwa/madison/dfrc