Interestingly, there are a few key things to be learned from cows when it comes to nutrition. Here are 5 things cows would tell you about nutrition (if they could talk):
1. Fat is Part of a Healthy Diet
Cows eat a lot of grass but they don’t really live on a fat-free, carbohydrate-based diet. Cows derive over 70% of their energy from Volatile Fatty Acids (VFAs) or Short-Chain Fatty Acids (SCFAs) produced for them by microbes in the cow’s rumen (stomach). Cows are living on a high-fat diet.
Rumen microbes digest plant fibers and produce different volatile fatty acids like acetic acid, butyric acid, and propionic acid which the cows use for energy. Butyric Acid is the fat from which the word ‘Butter’ originates.
Fat is part of a healthy diet. Eat more butter.
Cows Derive 70% of their energy from fat
2. It’s hard to live on Grass alone! A Healthy diet requires more than a salad
While a cow’s diet is grass-based, to achieve optimal health and fitness, a cow’s diet is formulated with a few additional ingredients to balance what she is eating. It is important to balance protein and energy in the cows feed to make sure they are getting enough of each category. There is also a real focus on looking deep into the nutrient quality, for instance, evaluating amino acid profiles in protein sources and making sure they are all in balance. Micro-nutrients like salt, vitamins, and minerals are routinely reviewed to make sure there isn’t a deficiency. A small deficiency can cause big problems.
Most dairies work with cow nutritionists to balance the cows feed ration to make sure the cows are receiving all the nutrients they need. If the feed isn’t balanced the cow can become scrawny, stressed, or even cause experience negative health effects. The cow’s milk output will also decrease if her nutrition is not in balance, therefore, a good indicator to whether she is eating well or not.
Focusing on balanced nutrition is easy and a good preventative measure to avoid future health problems.
All feeds are analyzed for the amount of each nutrient- the feed is then balanced accordingly
3. Focus on eating nutrient Dense Foods
Cows eat a large volume of grass because there is little nutrition in grass. In order to live on their plant-based diet, Cows need to eat about 120lbs of feed per day to fill their energy needs and have to spend 16 hours per day eating and ruminating (re-chewing).
Cows are able to live on grass but they have an advanced digestive system with a 4-compartment stomach with one compartment (rumen) being able to hold 40 gallons. There is very little nutrition in grass which is why cows spend so much time eating and digesting. The rumen microbes convert the grass into a usable form of nutrition for the cow.
Incorporating nutrient-dense foods like milk, cheese, and meat is much easier than eating bucket loads of salad.
4. Healthy Gut, Healthy Life
A cow’s health depends on the health of her rumen microflora. Abrupt diet changes can cause imbalances in the rumen bacteria. Eating small meals throughout the day also help her to maintain proper pH balance in the rumen and create a good environment for the bugs. If the bugs in her rumen are not being fed properly or become unbalanced, the cow can have serious health problems. Feeding cows is about keeping the rumen bacteria healthy so the cows can be healthy.
If you feed the bacteria in your gut healthy, you can live much healthier. Milk and fermented dairy products like yogurt, cheese, and keifer are food for your gut bacteria.
5. Symbiotic Living
Eating a well-rounded diet is to live in harmony with the natural order of this world. All life is interconnected and linked together in symbiotic relationships.
A cow’s rumen is home to “25 billion bacteria, 10 million protozoa, and 10 thousand fungi. That’s more than a quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) rumen microbes per cow.” (Source)
Cows share a symbiotic relationship with their rumen microflora. The cows give a home to bacteria in their rumens where they can live and thrive, and the rumen microflora feeds the cows. Rumen bacteria digest their food and when their lives are over they pass into the other cow stomachs to die and become a valuable protein source for cows. If it were not for another lifeform, cows simply could not live.
