The red barns, the covered bridges, and, of course, the cows. These may be the first few things that pop into your head when thinking about Vermont. After all, it’s not uncommon to drive down a country road and pass by one (or more) wide open fields with cows grazing. In fact, it’s a pretty iconic scene if you think about it. With these iconic scenes in mind, lots of people think the cows in Vermont outnumber the people. We do have a very low population and we are a very small state, and of course, there are a lot of cows, but let’s set the record straight. Let’s learn about whether Vermont has more cows than people, as well as a few other interesting facts you may not know.
We aren't here to just sit around and graze, so let us get straight to the question at hand: are there really more cows than people in Vermont?
Actually, there are nine states that have more cows than people... And Vermont isn't one of them! I know it must shock a lot of people that we have "moooved" off the list of states that have more cows than people, but the fact is Vermont was never part of this elite group of states.
There are 3,650,000 cattle there and only 895,376 people. So South Dakota has more than four times as many cattle as they do people! You might think it is utterly ridiculous but it is true.
We are not alone in saying this; beef2live.com says the same thing. Vermont was number 17 on the cows:human ratio list!
One thing we can say for sure, though; Vermont has a lot of dairy cows. Our state is literally flowing with milk and honey. Did you know that Vermont beekeepers have come up with innovative ways to care for honey bees and in turn has made us one of the leaders in New England for producing honey? UnBEElivable facts, I'll tell ya.
Although farms today have changed quite a bit (to say the least) because of modern technology, we are thankful for our hardworking farmers who make all of it possible.
Since we are just filling your head with great knowledge, here are a few more interesting facts you may get a kick out of:
Vermont is 78% forested with 4.46 million acres of forest. Also, 15% of the state is covered by dairy farms. So if you want to build a house, you most likely are going to have to cut down a couple of trees or fight a cow for some space.
If you got a kick out of learning about cows in Vermont and to answer the age-old question of whether our state has more cows than people then you really have to check out The Strolling of the Heifers. This amazing annual festival has tons of cows and everything farming; don’t miss it! Moooo!
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