Cows and Rural Guilford County

The above photo was taken last weekend on property located between Carlson Dairy and Pleasant Ridge Road. The cows seemed to be enjoying the sunny day as much as the humans were. Guilford County still has some farms remaining. It is nice on the weekends to drive around and look at them, to show children animals in real life. 

We don't know if these are dairy cows but they got us thinking about cow trivia. Dairy cows drink 35 gallons of water a day and produce 7 gallons of milk. Milk is 87% water so it can quench thirst. There are 11 million milk cows in the USA. On average, cows live to be 20 years old (unless they suffer an untimely death). As of 2009, cows have had a fully-mapped genome. If you are enjoying these tidbits, go here and play some cow trivia. Here is a list of some nearby farms that conduct tours-  if you want to get closer than we did for the above photo. Here's to a great weeken where everyone takes time to stop and interact with nature... and livestock........and be thankful that we are not snowed under!

Comments

[Janis & David]

Correction made. The last line should read.... "NOT snowed under," not "now snowed under."

[Hugh]

Nice photo.

Those are beef cattle, not dairy.

[Janis & David]

Thanks, Hugh. That is what I figured; however, these seem to be a lot of "fun facts" for dairy cattle on the internet, so we added some trivia and a link. We are lucky to have readers who help us learn- one of the rewards of a city daily photo site.

[Hugh]

The dairy industry in NC went into steep decline a generation ago.

The ruins are still visible if you take a ride in the far SE portion of the county along Hwy. 62.

Abandoned farm/silo/barn one after another...

[Janis & David]

I guess what you are saying is that, in Guilford County, most of those _____ Dairy Roads no longer lead to dairies.....