What's Your Nature?

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Animal: Cornell's Curious Cows

Posted by Phil Duggan,
North Country explorer from Amherst, New York
March 6, 2013

Habitat: Fallow Fenced North Country field.

Dairy cattle provide a mainstay of the Western diet, as a mother's milk is rich in vitamins, calcium, and fats for her offspring. Indeed, the dairy industry in the United States alone produces more than 10 billion gallons of milk every year. To do this, however, cows must be raised, herded, and milked efficiently. Thus, you get farms like this, where many cows of the same species are kept close together. This makes them susceptible to diseases that can easily pass from host to host, even on a farm like the Cornell Cooperative Extension in St. Lawrence county!

These cows were very personable! The way they stared right into the lens of the camera was almost like they were posing.