By nature, cows are more likely to take a nap than to sleep for hours at a time, but that doesn't mean they don't like their rest. Cows like to lie down for up to 14 hours a day, so their beds need to be comfortable.

Cows need a tasty, constant diet to stay healthy. Cow nutritionist Tim Davies says: "They need a nutritionally balanced diet. If farmers get this right, health and welfare will improve - and the cows may produce more milk as well."

Calves are hungry little creatures and farmers are busy making sure they get the right food from birth. During the first 24 hours, a newborn calf is fed colostrum, a nutrient-rich first milk produced by its mother. The calf is then gradually introduced to other foods, with nutritionists and vets helping the farmer to develop a diet plan suited to its age and size.

The milking parlour is a fascinating place and if you get a chance to see it in action you'll probably come away impressed. The frequency of milking varies from farm to farm and depends on the type of parlour used, the stage of lactation and milk yield.

There really is no such thing as the average dairy farm - there are farms of all shapes and sizes in the UK, from small herds to farms with more than 1,000 cows, and different farming systems including organic and conventional, grazed and housed.

A holiday in Spain may not be on the cards for dairy cows, but that doesn't mean they haven't got passports. The document is unique for each cow and can trace the animal's mother, place of birth and any movements throughout her lifetime.

Ask a friend to draw a dairy cow and the chances are they would paint it black and white. The Holstein-Friesian breed - which is black and white - is the most common and represents 90% of the British herd. Other breeds that can be seen include the Ayrshire, Jersey and Guernsey.

Around 5 billion litres of milk are sold in Britain each year and we consume an average of 1.6 litres each a week.  On top of that, 6 billion litres go into dairy products such as cheese, butter and dried milk powder, which is a vital component of many other food products. All in all, we buy enough dairy products every year to fill nearly 4,500 Olympic-size swimming pools.

Cloning is the creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of another. There are no cloned cows in Britain.

There are no cloned cows in Britain.