Xref: utzoo sci.physics:16332 sci.bio:4268
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!dog.ee.lbl.gov!csa2.lbl.gov!jtchew
From: jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.bio
Subject: Re: cow magnets
Summary: Highly ecological mining...naah...
Message-ID: <8973@dog.ee.lbl.gov>
Date: 10 Jan 91 23:07:27 GMT
References: <1991Jan10.210958.14351@xn.ll.mit.edu>
Reply-To: jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
Lines: 21
X-Local-Date: Thu, 10 Jan 91 15:07:24 PST
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4

>A recent Edmund Scientific catalog (#11N1), Page 149, lists
>Cow Magnets. These magnets.. "allow farmers to trap metal in the 
>stomach of cows". Can someone explain why/how these are used?

Cows are none too bright (cf. Larry Niven, "How much intelligence
do you have to evolve to sneak up on grass?) and will ingest things
that aren't at all good for them, such as whatever bits of baling
wire, barbed wire, and small hardware happen to be sitting in their
feed. The cow magnet sits in one of the cow's stomachs, I believe,
where it intercepts these items before they can get into the intestines 
and cause the never-get-overs. 

A few years ago, there was a widespread rumor that putting a cow
magnet near your carburetor would exert some kind of magic that
increased gas mileage.  Most of us would dismiss this immediately
as another substance associated with cattle, but enough people believed 
it to cause a temporary glitch in the availability of cow magnets, much 
to the irritation of farmers.

--Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"