What cows eat
Cows eat about 20 kg of nutritious food a day. That’s equivalent to 103 baked potatoes or 720 slices of bread!
They also need to drink a large amount of water, because milk is mostly made of water. Cows can drink about 100 litres of water (a bathtub full) in a day.
There are five main types of food in a dairy cow’s diet. These are:
- Pasture: Plants grown in grazing paddocks that can be a mix of grasses such as ryegrass or protein-rich legumes such as clover. Fresh pasture is the largest part of an Australian dairy cow’s diet.
- Hay: Extra pasture that’s been dried, cut and made into bales to feed to cows later.
- Silage: Pasture that’s been cut and stored while it’s still green to retain the nutrients.
- Grains: Cereals such as wheat and barley provide more energy than pasture and help cows make more milk. Grains can be crushed and mixed with vitamins and minerals to form pellets. These are usually given to cows at milking time.
- Forage crops: Special crops are sometimes grown for the cows to graze on during summer. These include lucerne, maize (corn), millet, turnips and oats.
After each milking session a cow is typically rotated to a new paddock so she can enjoy fresh pasture. This rotation system allows grass to regrow and ensures that cows are always eating the best grass.
Farmers often need to purchase additional feed to supplement what they can grow, especially during periods of climate variability and drought, which can affect water use and pasture growth. Purchased feed can represent over 30% of dairy farm costs – the largest single cost incurred by most farmers.