Dairy Farming
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50 free Dairy Farming trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Dairy farming is one of the oldest jobs on earth and one of the most technical. Behind every glass of milk is a herd that has to be fed, bred, kept healthy and milked on a strict daily rhythm, and a history full of odd inventions and surprisingly famous cows. This quiz covers the whole farm: the major dairy breeds and where they came from, how a cow's body turns grass into milk, the machines that replaced the hand and the bucket, the feeds that carry a herd through the cold months, and the regions that produce the most. It is written for anyone curious about where milk comes from, whether you grew up on a farm, show cattle with a youth club, teach an agriculture class or just like a good pub-quiz round. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Elm Farm Ollie, a Guernsey cow, was milked in mid-journey in 1930 as the first cow to travel aboard what?
An airplane
An airplane carried her from Bismarck, Missouri, to an air show in St. Louis, and her milk was dropped to the crowd below in containers tied to parachutes.
Q 02Pauline Wayne, the last cow to graze the White House lawn, supplied milk to which US president's family?
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft's cow once went missing for two days on her way to a dairy show, when a rail crew's mistake sent her private car to the Chicago stock yards.
Q 03Dairy farmers often feed a cow a magnet to protect her from which oddly named condition?
Hardware disease
Hardware disease strikes when swallowed nails or wire pierce the stomach wall, so a magnet given by mouth sits in the stomach and holds stray metal in place.
Q 04Milkmaids who caught cowpox seemed immune to which deadly disease, inspiring Edward Jenner's vaccine?
Smallpox
Smallpox immunity among dairy workers led Jenner to test matter from a cowpox sore on milkmaid Sarah Nelmes, and his word vaccination comes from vacca, Latin for cow.
Q 05What must a dairy cow do before her body will start producing any milk at all?
Give birth
Give birth is the trigger: like every mammal, a cow makes milk to feed her young, so dairy farmers breed their cows regularly to keep it flowing.
Q 06A dairy cow's pregnancy lasts about nine months, almost exactly the same as that of which other species?
Humans
Humans and cows both carry their young for about nine months, so a farmer who wants a cow in the milking herd by age two must breed her at around 15 months.
Q 07Which gas do dairy cows release mostly by belching, as microbes in the gut break down their feed?
Methane
Methane is a by-product of stomach microbes called methanogens, and because it is a potent greenhouse gas some farms now adjust their feed to cut it.
Q 08Which famous inventor inaugurated the Rotolactor, a rotating platform that washed and milked 50 cows at once, in 1930?
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison started the machine at the Walker-Gordon farm in Plainsboro, and the Rotolactor went on to be a featured attraction at the 1939 New York World's Fair.
Q 09Which country became the world's top milk producer after Operation Flood, a dairy programme launched in 1970?
India
India went from a milk-short nation to the biggest producer through village cooperatives, a drive led by Verghese Kurien and nicknamed the White Revolution.
Q 10In the Almabtrieb each autumn, elaborately decorated cows are led down from their summer pastures in which mountains?
The Alps
The Alps see the herds dressed up only when the summer has passed without an accident, and villages greet the homecoming with music, feasts and dancing.
Q 11Which black-and-white breed, the choice of most dairy farmers worldwide, shaped the popular picture of a cow?
Holstein
Holstein breeding leans on a few star bulls: one American sire named Elevation, born in 1965, fathered more than 70,000 offspring through artificial insemination.
Q 12Which dairy breed comes from a Channel Island that banned cattle imports for more than 200 years, until 2008?
Jersey
Jersey shut out foreign cattle after French animals were being shipped through the island to dodge British import duty, hurting the price and name of its own breed.
Q 13Which US state hosts the World Dairy Expo, North America's biggest dairy cattle show, in its capital every October?
Wisconsin
Q 21Which udder infection do milkers look for by squirting the first streams of milk from each teat before milking?
Mastitis
Mastitis shows up as clots or discolouration in those first squirts, and milk from an affected cow has to be kept out of the supply.
Q 22Which company was first to sell the milk-boosting hormone rBST to American dairy farmers, under the brand name Posilac?
Monsanto
Monsanto began selling it in 1994, but the European Union and several other countries banned the hormone because of the added health risks to the cows.
Q 23Which dairy machine, first manufactured by Swedish engineer Gustaf de Laval, spins fresh milk to split it in moments?
Cream separator
Wisconsin has staged the show in Madison since 1967, and seven recognised dairy breeds parade there before one cow is crowned Supreme Champion.
Q 14What is the name for a young female cow that has not yet had a first calf or joined the milking herd?
Heifer
Heifer is the name she keeps until she calves, which most dairy farmers aim to see happen when she is about two years old.
Q 15What name is given to the partly digested feed a cow brings back up from her stomach to chew a second time?
Cud
Cud is pressed against the roof of the mouth with the tongue to squeeze out the liquid, and only then is the solid part chewed thoroughly.
Q 16Which chamber, the largest of four in a cow's stomach, can researchers reach through a porthole in the animal's side?
Rumen
Rumen portholes, first documented in 1928, let vets transplant healthy gut contents from one cow to another as well as study digestion as it happens.
Q 17Which antibody-rich milk does a cow produce only in the first few days after her calf is born?
Colostrum
Colostrum is vital because a calf, unlike a baby, receives no antibodies before it is born, so one denied this first feed almost always dies of infection.
Q 18Which feed is made by packing chopped green crops tightly to keep out air, so that they ferment rather than rot?
Silage
Silage is in effect pickled fodder: the crop sours as it ferments, which preserves it for months, and maize, rye and sorghum are all commonly used.
Q 19Fonterra, a farmer-owned dairy giant formed in 2001 from two big co-operatives, is based in which country?
New Zealand
New Zealand farmers own Fonterra, which handles a large share of the world's dairy exports and also absorbed the national Dairy Board when it was formed.
Q 20Milk fever, which can leave a cow unable to stand soon after calving, is caused by low blood levels of which mineral?
Calcium
Calcium is drained so fast by the first milk that the cow's body cannot keep up, and older cows are the ones struck most often.
Cream separator sales built the firm now called Alfa Laval; before it, farmers had to leave milk standing until it divided by itself and risk it turning sour.
Q 24Stephen Babcock's 1890 test, which he refused to patent, lets dairy farmers measure what in a sample of milk?
Butterfat
Butterfat could at last be measured cheaply, which exposed sellers who diluted their milk or skimmed it, and helped farmers pick their best cows to breed from.
Q 25The Murrah, a jet-black breed from Haryana kept mainly for its milk, belongs to which species?
Water buffalo
Water buffalo of this breed have been shipped abroad to raise milk yields in Italy, Bulgaria and Egypt, and Murrahs change hands for high prices.
Q 26The Saanen, a white breed named after a Swiss valley and kept in over eighty countries, is which dairy animal?
Goat
Goat breeds do not come more productive in Switzerland than the Saanen, though its pale skin means it copes badly with strong sun.
Q 27Hanoverhill Starbuck, a champion bull whose semen sold in 45 countries, was recreated in 2000 by which technique?
Cloning
Cloning gave breeders a genetic copy called Starbuck II, yet his semen could never be sold because no government approved sales from a cloned animal.
Q 28Which high-protein legume, known as lucerne in Britain and Australia, is grown chiefly as feed for dairy cows?
Alfalfa
Alfalfa sends its roots down two to three metres, and sometimes far deeper, which lets it reach moisture that shallow-rooted crops cannot in a drought.
Q 29Which extinct wild ox, whose last confirmed survivor died in Poland in 1627, is the ancestor of domestic cattle?
Aurochs
Aurochs were first tamed about 10,500 years ago in the Near East, and genetic studies suggest European-type herds may descend from as few as 80 animals.
Q 30The red-and-white Ayrshire, a hardy dairy breed first known as the Dunlop, comes from which country?
Scotland
Scotland's rugged south-west gave the Ayrshire its toughness, and its breed society sells it to farmers on long life and easy calving.