Our cows

... the source of our cheese from our heart moves around and grazes in the meadows of our region, in and close to the Groen Heart region. Together, our cows produce as much as 420 million litres of milk every year, which we process to make our cheeses. To keep our natural, colourful milk producers happy, they are allowed to get stuck into around eighty kilos of grass each - every day. Our cows mainly use their tongue for grazing, of course, while the teeth in their lower jaws cuts the grass into tiny pieces. They only use their molars when they start to ruminate, i.e. chew the cud. The nutrients in the grass move through the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum and then through the intestines into the udders, where the genuine cow’s milk is made that our farmers milk twice a day. Our cows are real dairy cows: every day, each one of these ladies produces, on average, 25 litres of milk which we, in turn, can use to make 2.5 kilos of cheese. Another fact that is important to know: a cow can only be milked after she has had a calf. A cow will have her first calf when she is about 2 years old, when her udder is fully developed so she can give the best milk.

Would you like to find out more about cows? Have a look at the website of the Dutch Dairy Organisation, www.zuivelonline.nl/zuivel/koe/