Occasionally we are asked “How much does a cow weigh?”
First, you have to remember that cows are ladies and everyone knows you should never ask a lady her weight! All kidding aside, it’s a very good question.
Cows are a lot like people. They are all different and there are a lot of variables to their weight, such as if they’re pregnant or not. That means the numbers we’re about to share are only averages.
How much does a cow weigh?
Most of our cows weigh around 1,000-1,100 lbs when they’re not pregnant.
When they have a calf, the baby calf usually weighs around 75 lbs, depending on if the calf is born from a mature cow or a heifer (Remember…a heifer is a female that has never had a calf before, and a cow is a female that has had a calf before. Here’s more about heifers and cows)
These calves will then put on about 50-60 lbs of weight a month. They gain weight by drinking their mom’s milk for the first six months of their life until they’re weaned. After that, they eat grass until they weigh about 1,100 lbs.
How do we weigh a cow?
We use a livestock scale to weigh our cows. The cows walk into a stall that has a scale as the floor. We weigh them with a beam scale that is sort of like you’d find at a doctor’s office. Then, they walk off the scale and go back into the field.
Some farmers don’t have livestock scales and they estimate the weight by measuring the animals length and girth, and then use a formula to determine weight.
Watch the video and see Matt weighing one of our cows.
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We're Matt & Jessica, fifth-generation cattle farmers & the owners of Clover Meadows Beef. Good food starts with knowing where it comes from. On our blog, you'll find easy beef recipes, cooking tips, stories of how we raise our cattle, and how to buy farm-fresh beef locally. Our goal is to make cooking beef easy so you feel confident cooking any cut of beef in your home kitchen.