KJ is our 2,000lb dog, even though he’s not a dog he’s clearly a bull. But we call him our dog because you can pet him like a dog, he sheds like a dog and he slobbers like a dog. We taught him stop, but couldn’t teach him sit. He’s called KJ because he was raised by two farmer’s kids Kevin and James. They had to raise him because his mother died during childbirth. They had him for a couple years, then a woman fell in love with him and wanted him as a pet, so she got him as a pet. She got sick and couldn’t take care of him anymore, so Kevin and James brought him here.
KJ is 15 now, cattle can get up to 30, so he’s still pretty young. He is a bull even though he doesn’t have horns. Horns are a genetic trait in cattle, so if the mom and dad don’t have the horns they kids aren’t going to have them either. He’s half Black Angus, half Hereford, but he looks all Hereford in coloration. A lot of people say cows have four stomachs but that’s not true. They have one stomach but it is separated into four chambers. They have a lot of bacteria in their stomachs that help them break down otherwise not very nutritious grass, which is why they separate each chamber for different roles. This allows them to get upwards of 90% of the caloric value out of their food. Bulls are also said to hate the color red, but that’s another common misconception. Cattle are red/green colorblind, so it’s more of the movement of the matador that gets them going.
Cows are even-toed ungulates, which means they put their weight on an even number of toes (2). They have four toes total on each front, the two in the front are where they put all of their weight, the two in the back are just little nubs that don’t really do anything anymore. Additionally cattle only have a bottom row of front teeth, no top row. This makes KJ very easy to feed because he can’t bite you, the worst he can do is gum you!