Rosie's Q&A

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Here are some of the questions that moo guys have been asking lately. Just click on the question and the answer will pop up!

If moo'd like to ask something, just click here, fill in the form and I'll post a reply as soon as I can.

• Q:

  How do cows make milk?

  Asked by David

  Milk is truly one of nature's miracles! You can find out all about how we make milk by watching this video from the moovie section of moo website.

  You can also check out our moognificent Amazing Cow learning tool.

• Q:

  How does grass turn into milk?

  Asked by Nicholas

  There’s a video on my website that mooght help you with information about milk, click here to watch it now.
  
  You can also check out our moognificent Amazing Cow learning tool.

• Q:

  Can we send you pictures in the post Rosie?

  Asked by Leo

  Hello there Leo, you certainly can send me pictures that you've drawn and I'd love to see them!

  You can send them to:

  Rosie the Cowbassador, DairyNZ Ltd, Cnr Ruakura & Morrinsville Roads | Newstead | Private Bag 3221| Hamilton 3240

  but if you want to keep your work, you can always email me a picture of it. Just send it to rosie@rosiesworld.co.nz

  I look forward to seeing them.

• Q:

  Can cows see colours or are they colourblind Rosie?

  Asked by The children from Room 16 at Victory Primary School

  Hmmm! Farmtastic question but this one isn’t so straight forward, the answer is both yes and no!

  Cows see most colours but not all. They see yellows and blues but they don’t see red very well (“Red rag to a bull” is a myth – the bull in a bull ring will charge at the movement of a matador’s cape not because it is red!)

• Q:

  Do you have a best friend Rosie?

  Asked by Ashleigh

  I’m lucky enough to have made lots of friends all over the country on my travels but couldn’t really pick a best friend...  I always look forward to getting back home and relaxing on the farm at Raglan; travelling is very tiring!!

• Q:

  Have you been to Hokitika?

  Asked by Adele

  I travelled to Hokitika some time ago and visited the Hokitika Wild Food Festival while I was there – I had moovellous fun.

  See some more places I've visited on my map.

• Q:

  Why do cows regurgitate their food Rosie?

  Asked by Kaitlyn

  Cows regurgitate their food to help break it down and get to all the important energy, protein, minerals and vitamins inside it. They have a stomach that has four chambers and this is the key to their ability to break down the grass they eat and get to the ‘good’ stuff.

  The grass is usually swallowed whole and goes into the first chamber of the stomach to be broken down. The cow then regurgitates the grass and chews it into smaller pieces to help the break-down process; she then re-swallows it and returns it to the stomach chamber where it is broken down and digested even more until all the goodness has been extracted.

• Q:

  Do you know how to make a cake Rosie?

  Asked by Vanessa

  I’ve never tried to make a cake but would love to have a go sometime – I wonder if there’s a grass cake recipe, hehe!! I might need some help as my hooves can be a bit clumsy sometimes.

  Have you made any recipes from moo recipe section of the website yet?

• Q:

  How do I win my ribbons in the Calf Club Game?

  Asked by Jennifer

  Once you’ve completed the 12 days of the Calf Club Game, the next day you’ll be able to start Calf Club Day.

  You get awarded ribbons for successfully completing each stage of Calf Club Day and you’ll then be able to print a certificate to show what a moovellous job you’ve done.

  If you've not tried my Calf Club Game before, click here to get started.

• Q:

  Can you give me some good calf rearing tips?

  Asked by Hamish

  Sure thing!

  Calves need to be kept warm and dry, they need a good supply of clean water and also clean straw or hay to eat which is their roughage

  Calves are usually fed twice a day to start with but then move onto being fed once a day when they are used to their new food and environment.

  There are a couple of really good websites about calf rearing that my clever friend at DairyNZ told me about, so I thought I’d share those with you:

  lifestyleblock.co.nz
  ngahiwifarms.co.nz

• Q:

  You live in Raglan, but where is Raglan?

  Asked by Leo, 4

  Raglan is in the Waikato, about 50km west of Hamilton, it’s on the west coast and I can even see the sea from my farm!

  I come from a farm with over 400 cows and it has lots of delicious green grass. It is a moo-vellous place to live!

  If you'd like to see what happens during a typical day on farm click here.

• Q:

  Are there any soft toys of you Rosie?

  Asked by Calem Eyre

  Well, I have to say I’m really flattered that you’d like a soft toy of me but it’s not something I’ve thought of before, so thank moo for the farmtastic idea.

  I’m going to moo-mail my people right away to suggest it but for now you can print and cut out the cowbots in the Papercraft section of my website and I’ll be sure to let you know if soft toys become available.

• Q:

  Are cows allergic to bees Rosie?

  Asked by Abbey

  Cows are not generally allergic to bees – at least not in the same way that people become allergic to bees. We are very careful about avoiding bees that are out and about collecting pollen and nectar.

  But, like people, if we do get stung, then a few may have a reaction and could become allergic. Fortunately, moost of the allergic reactions in us cows just cause skin swelling.

  My cow friends and I make sure that if we are in a paddock with a beehive in it, that we don’t knock it over….being stung by a whole lot of bees would moost certainly not be fun!

  The vet at DairyNZ tells me that if a cow did have an allergic reaction to a bee sting, that an ‘antihistamine’ injection would fix them right up!

• Q:

  Why is milk white?

  Asked by Gidienne, East Tamaki

  Milk looks white because of the way light is reflected by the protein and fat molecules (or moolecules!) found in milk. The more fat milk has, the whiter it looks! This is why cream looks much whiter than low fat milk!!

  If you would like to find out more about how grass gets turned into milk click here 

• Q:

  When did people start milking cows Rosie?

  Asked by Dipshika

  Moovellous question! It's thought that cows were first milked many thousands of years ago – that is around 8,000 years ago in Greece!

  They would have been milked ‘by hand’, but a lot more recently, people have been milking cows using milking machines. This makes milking cows much more efficient. The first mechanical milking machine in New Zealand was trialled in 1893 in Mangere.

  If you would like to know more about the history of dairy in New Zealand, click on this link http://www.godairy.co.nz/the-big-picture/dairynz-timeline

• Q:

  Do you like watching TV Rosie?

  Asked by Claire

  I do like watching tv but don’t always get too mooch time for it – the news is always interesting but my favourite show is Country Calendar.

  For fun I sometimes watch Top Town, it really makes me laugh sooo mooch!!!

  I've got lots of moovies for you to watch - why not take a sneaky peak now?

• Q:

  Do cows lie down to sleep?

  Asked by Hayley

  I sleep lying down – that is how I am moost comfortable!

• Q:

  How is cow poop made?

  Asked by Johnny

  What a moovellous question - I had to ask some of my clever friends at DairyNZ what the answer was and here is what they said:

  Cow poo is the waste product that is left after cows have eaten what they need to and the nutrients have been taken out during the digestive process in their stomachs.

  Cow poo is quite runny and the main reason is the amount of water in the grass; in the spring, grass can be close to 90% water and in late summer about 80%.

  Such a high water content, and the fact that the grass is quickly digested by the cow, means that cow ‘poop’ is very runny!

• Q:

  How does a cow give milk to its baby?

  Asked by Ethan

  Baby cows suckle on their mums udder to get food.

  For the first three or four days after the calves are born, cows make a very special type of milk called colostrum, which has all the good things the baby calf needs to grow big and strong. After that, the colostrum turns into regular cow’s milk.

  The calf drinks the milk several times a day and as it starts to grow, slowly begins eating grass and other yummy feed, such as hay and calf pellets that our farmer put out for them.

  By the time a calf is about 3 or 4 months old it will have stopped drinking milk and from then on eat grass and other feeds – just like the big cows!

• Q:

  How do cows lie down without falling over?

  Asked by Chloe

  The answer is - very carefully :-)

  To lie down they start by bending their front legs then lower their bottom down. When they get up they kneel on their front legs, then lift up their bottoms and then finish by straightening their front legs.

• Q:

  Rosie, why is cow poop runny?

  Asked by Kitty

  What a moovellous question, I had to ask some of my clever friends at DairyNZ what the answer was and here is what they said:

  The main reason is the amount of water in the grass; in the spring grass can be close to 90% water and in late summer about 80%. Such a high water content and the fact that the grass is quickly digested by the cow means that cow ‘poop’ is indeed very runny.

  /media/9959/introCow_d2_Original.jpg

• Q:

  Do you like horses Rosie?

  Asked by Georgie

  I looove horses – they are beautiful creatures, like cows! Do you like horses too? 

  On my farm in Raglan there are moostly cows, but we also have a dog there too – he is a character! Head over to my friends section to meet him right now!

   

• Q:

  How do cows make methane?

  Asked by Paul

  I had to ask some of my clever friends at DairyNZ what the answer was to this moovellous question:

  When cows eat grass, the digestion in the stomach releases a gas called hydrogen from the grass.

  If hydrogen is not removed from the stomach, we cows would become very sick. So bugs (bacteria) in the stomach capture the hydrogen and add carbon from the grass to make a gas called methane.

  The cow can then release the methane into the air in its breath, and the bugs and the cow can go on digesting grass.

• Q:

  Do cows make friends with other cows Rosie?

  Asked by Sam, 5 years, Wellington

  Yes they do make friends with other cows, I’ve got lots and lots of cow friends – cows can recognise up to about 300 other cows in a herd and they tend to hang around with their mates when they are in the paddock or when they walk to the milking shed. Just like people some cows are bossy and other cows are shy.

• Q:

  Do you travel a lot Rosie?

  Asked by Phillipa

  When I first became Cowbassador I travelled hundreds of kilometres all around the North and South Islands. It’s a good job I didn’t have to walk otherwise my hooves would be worn out by now, hehe!!

  You can see some of the place I've visited by checking out my map here.

  Moore recently I've been all over the world finding out where all our moovellous dairy products go and what they get used for.

  You can see where I visited and play my Big OE game here.

  I love travelling though as it means I get to meet lots of my fans and that’s one of the best things about being Cowbassador. 

• Q:

  Do you have calf cowbots I can make?

  Asked by Andrea

  If you head over to the Papercraft section and print off the templates as A5 instead of A4 size, you'll get calf sized cowbots to go with your adult ones!

• Q:

  Do cows drink milk Rosie?

  Asked by Sarah

  Cows drink milk when they are little calves, but after a few weeks, we start drinking water to keep us nice and hydrated.

• Q:

  How long does it take to milk cows?

  Asked by Riley

  Moost cows are milked twice daily at around 5am and 3pm, for about an hour per milking!

  To learn more about milking and how grass gets turned into milk, check out my moovies!

• Q:

  Have you been to the Tip Top ice-cream factory Rosie?

  Asked by Rose

  I sure did go to the moovellous Tip-Top factory but it was quite a long time ago! I bet they're making heaps moore flavours now - perhaps I should go back soon and do some taste testing?

• Q:

  Are there more cows on the North Island or the South Island?

  Asked by Shaye and Brooke

  Great question! There are more of us moovellous cows in the North Island of this fine country. There are nearly 3 million cows in the North Island and just over 1.6 million cows in the South Island (that is 64% versus 36%).

• Q:

  Does it hurt when you get milked Rosie?

  Asked by Andrew

  It doesn’t hurt at all when cows get milked, it tickles a bit that's all but you get to have something yummy to eat while it’s all going on too.

  Find out more about how grass gets turned into yummy milk by watching my video here.

• Q:

  Do you like living on a farm?

  Asked by Diane

  Yes – I do like living on a farm, I’ve got lots of animal friends and one of the best things about the farm I live on is that I can see the sea!

  Meet all my friends here.

• Q:

  How do you know so much Rosie?

  Asked by Josh

  Being the Dairy Industry Cowbassador, it’s really important that I know lots about the dairy industry and cows, but sometimes when I don’t know the answer, I ask people at DairyNZ.

  They have lots of scientists and very clever people working there who help me answer very technical questions.

Answer:

Have some fun with games, colouring, making cowbots or testing your memory!