Holsteins are incredibly popular dairy cows, making up 90% of the dairy herds in the U.S. today. A newborn calf weighs 90 pounds and will consume 50 pounds of food each day during its initial growth spurt until it gets up to an average weight of 1400 pounds.
History
Both archeology and genetics tell us that wild cattle were domesticated separately on at least two occasions. Not surprisingly for students of history, these domestication attempts occurred in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia and in the Indus Valley, two of the great cradles of early civilization. Cattle were valued for their meat, milk, and hides, and domestication tamed the wild aurochs and lessened their size, making them more manageable for burgeoning agricultural civilizations. The animals were then traded across the ancient world and interbred with other wild cows, leading eventually to the numerous specialized breeds we see today.