Blog: The City of Davis and the Cow

Cows, cows, and more cows. 

When one thinks of Davis, chances are they are also thinking about cows, or will be soon.  I mean, even the notebooks in the UC Davis bookstore have “Cow Tipping Team” printed across their fronts. 

It’s just a part of who we are here in Davis.  With the mammal being such an arguably integral part of the university and surrounding city, I thought it only fair to give them a shout-out of their own.

The on-campus Dairy contains about 100 cows that are milked twice a day.  Hilmar Cheese is the sole recipient of the milk that these cows produce.  People were allowed to pet the cows years ago as long as they only petted one at a time (so as to keep from transferring diseases from one cow to another).  However this changed with the arrival of signs declaring that The Diary was a bio-secure facility and nowadays all visitors must get permission from the office first.  This was done mainly for the health of the animals.

The cows are easily the biggest contributors to the “Essence of Davis” and the students in the Tercero living area have it the worst by far – especially on hot days or right after it rains.  The smell usually arises in the afternoon or evening when there’s an unfortunate southwest wind that picks up and causes the smell to blanket the campus.  Coincidentally, many students in fact claim to miss the smell once they leave Davis.

The Cow Crank is UC Davis’s rock climbing competition held annually in the ARC.  Everybody is allowed to compete, whether they are affiliated with the school or not.  It typically has a theme and takes place sometime between February and April.

Davis even has a cow fountain, which is located at shopping center.  Donna Billick, a local artist, created it in 1989 in addition to The Dancing Pigs, which is another art piece located at The Marketplace right outside Peet’s Coffee.

Davis has a few fistulated cows as well, meaning that these animals have an intentional hole cut in them for scientific research purposes.  Scientists place a "cannula" (which is a plastic device) into the side or stomach of an unsuspecting cow, which allows them to access the animal’s insides.  By doing so, Davis researchers are able to view how food is processed through the cow’s system.  The television show Ripley’s Believe it or Not even did a segment on Davis’s fistulated cows.

As far as Davis and cows go, it’s no wonder the town is so often equated with the hefty black and white mammals; so many aspects of the university and town are in honor of them. 

One can be reminded of the animal’s presence daily!