# bovine breasts **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2001, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bovine-breasts/63554 "2001-04-27T18:51:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@brook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brook)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bovine-breasts/63554/1 "2001-04-27T18:51:01Z")
why do cows have 4 boobs when at the VERY most all they would have is 2 calves. is it to fit all the automatic milking machines or what? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bovine-breasts/63554/2 "2001-04-27T21:42:28Z")
Actually, they come with five teats arranged in a quincunx. However, the milk-machine manufacturers have never figured a way to wedge a fifth teat cup into the center of the harness, so the middle one is surgically removed at birth. * * * Somewhat more rationally, (and this is still pure WAG), before humans began messing with their development through selective breeding, there was a certain limit to the amount of milk that could be secreted from the tissue surrounding any given teat. Having four teats allows the calf to feed nearly continuously as the milk glands/reservoir for each teat are exhausted. Why do horses (with similar sized offspring) get away with only two teats? I have no idea. As I noted, I am guessing. Goats also have only two teats, yet triplets are not at all rare among goats. ---
**Author:** ![Lego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5e925/32.png) [@Lego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lego)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bovine-breasts/63554/3 "2001-04-27T22:17:15Z")
Actually, I’m pretty sure that cows can have more than two calves. I think saw a cow at a fair once that did have four calves. ---
**Author:** ![funneefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bovine-breasts/63554/4 "2001-04-27T23:24:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by brook \* > \*\*why do cows have 4 boobs when at the VERY most all they would have is 2 calves. > \*\* The other two are for us. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2001, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bovine-breasts/63554/5 "2001-04-28T03:32:01Z")
In cattle the normal cow has at least four teats that work. A large number of them have extras that produce no milk and a rare few produce a small amount in the extras. It’s nothing out of the ordinary to see a cow with six teats, and four that are truely of use. The odd cow with more than four milking teats is a pain in the butt, since after four get milked by the machine, you have to hook up the milker to just the one remaining milk filled teat. Watch out for those one teat cattle though. ---
**Author:** ![dp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecd19e/32.png) [@dp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dp)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2001, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bovine-breasts/63554/6 "2001-04-28T04:25:30Z")
cows have 1 calf per year normally. chance of twins about 1 in 1000. any cow with more than 1 usually is the result of putting an orphan calf on a cow or maybe embryo transfer. 4 quarters because the bigger a calf gets the more milk he needs.If a cow had 2 teats , the bag would have to be twice as big to produce the same amt. of milk. it would be either dragging the ground or be in the way of walking. getting kicked while walking. ---
**Author:** ![funneefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2001, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bovine-breasts/63554/7 "2001-04-28T09:40:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dp \* > \*\*… chance of twins about 1 in 1000. \*\* I’m going to have to disagree with this one. We just had one set of twins last month and we average at least one set of twins a year (one year we had two sets within a month of each other), this with perhaps 100 births a year at the most. This is with Holsteins and I suppose breeds may vary but probably not by a factor of ten. It is not unheard of to have triplets and even quadruplets though the chances of all of them being healthy decline as the numbers go up.