"The friendly cow all red and white, I love with all my heart", Scottish poet Robert Louis Stevenson wrote - and he is not the first to be charmed by this friendly animal.

Cows have been domesticated for thousands of years and play a vital part in providing food for people all over the world. For dairy farmers, cows are the most important part of the dairy farm and they take great pride in caring for them. Emotional and financial reasons go hand-in-hand - healthy cows are easier and more enjoyable to manage, as well as more productive.

This means making sure they have access to nutritious feed, the best healthcare and spacious pastures and barns. Dairy cows are social animals that live and graze in herds and they need plenty of exercise as well as rest.

Dairy cows usually have their first calf when they are two years old. Just like us, their pregnancy lasts for nine months, and after giving birth they spend three months resting before the cycle starts again. Want to find out more? Check out our 'moovie' about calving.

Nine out of 10 dairy cows in Britain have the black and white markings of the Holstein-Friesian breed, although you might also see other breeds such as brown Guernsey or Jersey cows.

Breeding expert Marco Winters explains: "In Britain we really see a variety of breeds. This is because we have a lot of different systems in this country and we need breeds to suit those systems. In Scotland we would see a different animal to when we go to Cornwall, for example."Watch our video about breeding to hear more from Marco.

The average UK dairy farm has 117 cows with each producing around 7,000 litres of milk every year. That's enough for around 46,000 bowls of cereal from each cow.

Find out where cows sleep, what they eat and how they are milked.