Most farm cows are bred artificially–that is, a sperm is implanted in the cow. This helps farmers to avoid certain genetic problems. As an adult, a cow will give birth to a single calf once every two years or so. Though the natural lifespan of a cow can go over twenty years, most cows don’t live too much beyond ten years.
Today, cows are domesticated ungulates (hoofed animals with two toes on each hoof) that we see very often chewing the grass in farmers fields as we walk or drive through the countryside. There is an estimated 1.3 billion head of cattle and 920 breeds of cow in the world today.