If cows only eat grass, why do they produce so much fat?

Question

For example, as well as fat on their bodies, fat in the milk they produce.

On a similar note, why, if the only thing they eat is grass which is green, why isn't the milk they produce green?

Thanks

Answer 1

Most cows today are not fed a diet of grass but instead are fed feed that consists of corn, hormones, antibiotics and other ingredients that are not generally a natural part of their grazing diet. Combine this with factory farming and you get cows who spend most of their days shackled up in small stalls with milking tubes attached to their udders.

This does not make for a healthy cow who would get regular exercise had they been allowed to roam and graze on farmland.

Milk appears white because of the light reflecting off the colloidal particles of the milk emulsion. Milk really has no color because nothing is being absorbed in it. It's pretty much transparent.

If you're interested in getting leaner beef, go to a high-end butcher or gourmet market and ask if they carry grass (or grain)-fed beef. You will notice the difference as corn-fed cows produce a sweeter tasting beef.

Answer 2

Even though grass is poor in nutrition cows eat a LOT! It is hard to digest BUT cows have a digestive system that is adapted to a grass diet. They have very specialized teeth to take in a large quantity of grass which is then swallowed with very little chewing. This grass goes into the cows first stomach. Then while the cow is resting it regurgitates this half chewed or unchewed grass and chews it with molars that are specialized to grind this grass to pulp. Then it is reswallowed and sent to the second stomach. In the 2nd through 4th stomachs the cow breaks down virtually all traces of protein. Bacteria which feed on the cellulose here also release proteins. Then it goes into the intestines. Here the cellulose is attacked by bacteria and those bacteria release vitamins and minerals into the intestine. Thus, cows get the maximum nutrition from what they eat.

The nutrients are absorbed (osmosis) and filtered.

the Green is not used and mostly ends up as dung and urine.

Answer 3

some of the answers are prety complete. Not sure about the "they don't use the green bits" though. The green is the chlorophyl, that plants use to convert sunlight into useful chemical energy.

Chlorophyle is digested (converted into simpler molecules)in the cows digestive system together with the rest of the good stuff. Have a look at vegetarians, they don't generally have a green complexion either.  Nor do you look like the breakfst cerial you had, or any of the other food you eat.

Most stuff in food that any animal digests is altered chemically. Once altered it does not have the same properties. Milk is not grass juice but made by the cow from chemicals produced by its mamery glands, just the same way as human breast milk is and for much the same reason to feed its babies. Except being the greedy sods we are we steal the cows milk for ourselves.

Answer 4

They don't exercise.  There's a lesson in that.

Chemical reactions frequently cause colors of chemicals to change.

Answer 5

they eat tons of it. grasses and leaves

The nutrients are absorbed (osmosis) and filtered.

the Green is not used and mostly ends up as dung and urine.

Answer 6

well they bleach the milk, innit.....

also, they don just eat grass, they eat mashed up animals too...mmmm... and stand about all day instead of legging it away from big cats n tings....

Answer 7

Thats an awesome question. I've no idea of the answer but I give you a star