I mean… sort of? For one thing, most goods and materials we get from cows come from factories, factories that process cows, and most commercial live stock are essentially raised in a factory for making cows.
We can also get many equivalent or superior materials from factories, and of course it is theoretically possible to grow and produce any material we can get from a cow in a factory thanks to genetics. That said, cows are pretty incredible. In the same sense that we can apply to most or life, as well as for their intelligence and emotional complexity. They of course are very useful creatures and can and have provided labor and raw materials for a long time in human history. The factory thing is a bit of an unneeded flourish as factories only exist to mass produce goods.
A massive population tends to demand massive amounts of materials and goods, and being able to produce abundant amounts of materials and goods tends to support population growth, so factories exist sort of as the ends and means to population growth and lifestyle. In the modern world just about all goods and materials pass through or come from a factory or similar industrial means of mass production. Certainly by total numbers and likely by percents. So I would say that the assertion that it would take thousands of factories to give what a cow can is flatly wrong, especially as one factory can produce multiple things. It is generally more convenient, practical, and efficient to have factories produce such goods than for everyone to keep a small herd of cows for processing themselves as needed.
I've recently learned this big beautiful house along a river near my town was built by a man who developed an ointment treating sores on oxen who were being rubbed raw by harnesses pulling barges down the river.
We can also get many equivalent or superior materials from factories, and of course it is theoretically possible to grow and produce any material we can get from a cow in a factory thanks to genetics. That said, cows are pretty incredible. In the same sense that we can apply to most or life, as well as for their intelligence and emotional complexity. They of course are very useful creatures and can and have provided labor and raw materials for a long time in human history. The factory thing is a bit of an unneeded flourish as factories only exist to mass produce goods.