Cow Skin

Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult males are referred to as bulls.

Cattle are commonly raised as livestock for meat ( beef or veal, see beef cattle), for milk (see dairy cattle), and for hides, which are used to make leather. They are used as riding animals and draft animals ( oxen or bullocks, which pull carts, plows and other implements). Another product of cattle is their dung, which can be used to create manure or fuel. In some regions, such as parts of India, cattle have significant religious significance. Cattle, mostly small breeds such as the Miniature Zebu, are also kept as pets.

Different types of cattle are common to different geographic areas. Taurine cattle are found primarily in Europe and temperate areas of Asia, the Americas, and Australia. Zebus (also called indicine cattle) are found primarily in India and tropical areas of Asia, America, and Australia. Sanga cattle are found primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. These types (which are sometimes classified as separate species or subspecies) are further divided into over 1000 recognized breeds.

Around 10,500 years ago, taurine cattle were domesticated from as few as 80 wild aurochs progenitors in central Anatolia, the Levant and Western Iran. Op. cit. in A separate domestication event occurred in the Indian subcontinent, which gave rise to zebu. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there are approximately 1.5 billion cattle in the world as of 2018. Cattle are the main source of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, and are responsible for around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2009, cattle became one of the first livestock animals to have a fully mapped genome.

Taxonomy

Cattle were originally identified as three separate species: ''Bos taurus'', the European or "taurine" cattle (including similar types from Africa and Asia); ''Bos indicus'', the Indicine or "zebu"; and the extinct ''Bos primigenius'', the aurochs. The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and taurine cattle. They were later reclassified as one species, ''Bos taurus'', with the aurochs, zebu, and taurine cattle as subspecies. However, this taxonomy is contentious and some sources prefer the separate species classification, such as the American Society of Mammalogists' Mammal Diversity Database.

Complicating the matter is the ability of cattle to interbreed with other closely related species. Hybrid individuals and even breeds exist, not only between taurine cattle and zebu (such as the sanga cattle (''Bos taurus africanus'' x ''Bos indicus''), but also between one or both of these and some other members of the genus '' Bos''yaks (the dzo or yattle), banteng, and gaur. Hybrids such as the beefalo breed can even occur between taurine cattle and either species of bison, leading some authors to consider them part of the genus ''Bos'', as well. The hybrid origin of some types may not be obvious – for example, genetic testing of the Dwarf Lulu breed, the only taurine-type cattle in Nepal, found them to be a mix of taurine cattle, zebu, and yak. However, cattle cannot be successfully hybridized with more distantly related bovines such as water buffalo or African buffalo.

The aurochs originally ranged throughout Europe, North Africa, and much of Asia. In historical times, its range became restricted to Europe, and the last known individual died in Mazovia, Poland, in about 1627. Breeders have attempted to recreate cattle of similar appearance to aurochs by crossing traditional types of domesticated cattle, creating the Heck cattle breed.

The only pure African taurine breeds (''Bos taurus africanus'') remaining are the N'Dama, Kuri and some varieties of the West African Shorthorn.

Etymology

''Cattle'' did not originate as the term for bovine animals. It was borrowed from Anglo-Norman , itself from medieval Latin 'principal sum of money, capital', itself derived in turn from Latin 'head'. ''Cattle'' originally meant movable personal property, especially livestock of any kind, as opposed to real property (the land, which also included wild or small free-roaming animals such as chickens—they were sold as part of the land). The word is a variant of ''chattel'' (a unit of personal property) and closely related to ''capital'' in the economic sense. The term replaced earlier Old English 'cattle, property', which survives today as ''fee'' ( cf. , , ).

The word ''cow'' came via Anglo-Saxon (plural ), from Common Indo-European (genitive ) 'a bovine animal', cf. fa, gâv, script=Latn, sa, go-, script=Latn, cy, buwch. The plural became or in Middle English, and an additional plural ending was often added, giving , , but also , and others. This is the origin of the now archaic English plural, ''kine''. The Scots language singular is or , and the plural is .

In older English sources such as the King James Version of the Bible, ''cattle'' refers to livestock, as opposed to ''deer'' which refers to wildlife. ''Wild cattle'' may refer to feral cattle or to undomesticated species of the genus '' Bos''. Today, when used without any other qualifier, the modern meaning of ''cattle'' is usually restricted to domesticated bovines.

Terminology

In general, the same words are used in different parts of the world, but with minor differences in the definitions. The terminology described here contrasts the differences in definition between the United Kingdom and other British-influenced parts of the world such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United States.
* An "intact" (i.e., not castrated) adult male is called a '' bull''.
** A father bull is called a ''sire'' with reference to his offspring.
* An adult female that has had a calf (or two, depending on regional usage) is a ''cow''.
** A mother cow is called a ''dam'' with reference to her offspring. Often, mentions of ''dams'' imply cows kept in the herd for repeated breeding (as opposed to heifers or cows sold off sooner).
* A young female before she has had a calf of her own and who is under three years of age is called a ''heifer'' ( ).Delbridge, Arthur, The Macquarie Dictionary, 2nd ed., Macquarie Library, North Ryde, 1991 A young female that has had only one calf is occasionally called a ''first-calf heifer''. ''Heiferettes'' are either first-calf heifers or a subset thereof without potential to become lineage dams, depending on whose definition is operative.
* Young cattle (regardless of sex) are called '' calves'' until they are weaned, then ''weaners'' until they are a year old in some areas; in other areas, particularly with male beef cattle, they may be known as ''feeder calves'' or ''feeders''. After that, they are referred to as ''yearlings'' or ''stirks'' if between one and two years of age.
* '' Feeder cattle'' or ''store cattle'' are young cattle soon to be either backgrounded or sent to fattening, most especially those intended to be sold to someone else for finishing. In some regions, a distinction between ''stockers'' and ''feeders'' (by those names) is the distinction of backgrounding versus immediate sale to a finisher.
* A castrated male is called a ''steer'' in the United States; older steers are often called ''bullocks'' in other parts of the world, but in North America this term refers to a young bull. Piker bullocks are micky bulls (uncastrated young male bulls) that were caught, castrated and then later lost. In Australia, the term ''Japanese ox'' is used for grain-fed steers in the weight range of 500 to 650 kg that are destined for the Japanese meat trade. In North America, draft cattle under four years old are called working steers. Improper or late castration on a bull results in it becoming a coarse steer known as a ''stag'' in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In some countries, an incompletely castrated male is known also as a ''rig''.
* A castrated male (occasionally a female or in some areas a bull) kept for draft or riding purposes is called an '' ox'' (plural ''oxen''); ''ox'' may also be used to refer to some carcass products from any adult cattle, such as ox-hide, ox-blood, oxtail, or ox-liver.
* A ''springer'' is a cow or heifer close to calving.
* In all cattle species, a female twin of a bull usually becomes an infertile partial intersex, and is called a '' freemartin''.
* A wild, young, unmarked bull is known as a ''micky'' in Australia.Coupe, Sheena (ed.), Frontier Country, Vol. 1, Weldon Russell Publishing, Willoughby, 1989,
* An unbranded bovine of either sex is called a ''maverick'' in the US and Canada.
* ''Neat'' (horned oxen, from which neatsfoot oil is derived), ''beef'' (young ox) and ''beefing'' (young animal fit for slaughtering) are obsolete terms, although ''poll'', ''pollard'' and '' polled cattle'' are still terms in use for naturally hornless animals, or in some areas also for those that have been disbudded or dehorned.
* Cattle raised for human consumption are called '' beef cattle''. Within the American beef cattle industry, the older term beef (plural beeves) is still used to refer to an animal of either sex. Some Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and British people use the term ''beast''.
* Cattle bred specifically for milk production are called ''milking'' or '' dairy cattle''; a cow kept to provide milk for one family may be called a ''house cow'' or ''milker''. A ''fresh cow'' is a dairy term for a cow or first-calf heifer who has recently given birth, or "freshened."
* The adjective applying to cattle in general is usually ''bovine''. The terms ''bull'', ''cow'' and ''calf'' are also used by extension to denote the sex or age of other large animals, including whales, hippopotamuses, camels, elk and elephants.
* Various other terms for cattle or types thereof are historical; these include ''nowt'', '' nolt'', '' mart'', and others.

Singular terminology issue

"Cattle" can only be used in the plural and not in the singular: it is a plurale tantum. Thus one may refer to "three cattle" or "some cattle", but not "one cattle". "One head of cattle" is a valid though periphrastic way to refer to one animal of indeterminate or unknown age and sex; otherwise no universally used single-word singular form of ''cattle'' exists in modern English, other than the sex- and age-specific terms such as ''cow'', ''bull'', ''steer'' and ''heifer''. Historically, "ox" was not a sex-specific term for adult cattle, but generally this is now used only for working cattle, especially adult castrated males. The term is also incorporated into the names of other species, such as the musk ox and "grunting ox" (yak), and is used in some areas to describe certain cattle products such as ox-hide and oxtail.

''Cow'' is in general use as a singular for the collective ''cattle''. The word ''cow'' is easy to use when a singular is needed and the sex is unknown or irrelevant—when "there is a cow in the road", for example. Further, any herd of fully mature cattle in or near a pasture is statistically likely to consist mostly of cows, so the term is probably accurate even in the restrictive sense. Other than the few bulls needed for breeding, the vast majority of male cattle are castrated as calves and are used as oxen or slaughtered for meat before the age of three years. Thus, in a pastured herd, any calves or herd bulls usually are clearly distinguishable from the cows due to distinctively different sizes and clear anatomical differences. Merriam-Webster and Oxford Living Dictionaries recognize the sex-nonspecific use of ''cow'' as an alternate definition, whereas Collins and the OED do not.

Colloquially, more general non specific terms may denote cattle when a singular form is needed. ''Head of cattle'' is usually used only after a numeral. Australian, New Zealand and British farmers use the term ''beast'' or ''cattle beast''. ''Bovine'' is also used in Britain. The term ''critter'' is common in the western United States and Canada, particularly when referring to young cattle. In some areas of the American South (particularly the Appalachian region), where both dairy and beef cattle are present, an individual animal was once called a "beef critter", though that term is becoming archaic.

Other terminology

Cattle raised for human consumption are called '' beef cattle''. Within the beef cattle industry in parts of the United States, the term ''beef'' (plural ''beeves'') is still used in its archaic sense to refer to an animal of either sex. Cows of certain breeds that are kept for the milk they give are called '' dairy cows'' or ''milking cows'' (formerly ''milch cows''). Most young male offspring of dairy cows are sold for veal, and may be referred to as veal calves.

The term ''dogies'' is used to describe orphaned calves in the context of ranch work in the American West, as in "Keep them dogies moving". In some places, a cow kept to provide milk for one family is called a "house cow". Other obsolete terms for cattle include "neat" (this use survives in " neatsfoot oil", extracted from the feet and legs of cattle), and "beefing" (young animal fit for slaughter).

An onomatopoeic term for one of the most common sounds made by cattle is ''moo'' (also called ''lowing''). There are a number of other sounds made by cattle, including calves ''bawling'', and bulls ''bellowing''. Bawling is most common for cows after weaning of a calf. The bullroarer makes a sound similar to a bull's territorial call.

Characteristics

Anatomy

Cattle are large quadrupedal ungulate mammals with cloven hooves. Most breeds have horns, which can be as large as the Texas Longhorn or small like a scur. Careful genetic selection has allowed polled (hornless) cattle to become widespread.

Digestive system

Cattle are ruminants, meaning their digestive system is highly specialized to allow the consumption of difficult to digest plants as food. Cattle have one stomach with four compartments, the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum, with the rumen being the largest compartment.
The reticulum, the smallest compartment, is known as the "honeycomb". The omasum's main function is to absorb water and nutrients from the digestible feed. The omasum is known as the "many plies". The abomasum is like the human stomach; this is why it is known as the "true stomach".

Cattle are known for regurgitating and re-chewing their food, known as cud chewing, like most ruminants. While the animal is feeding, the food is swallowed without being chewed and goes into the rumen for storage until the animal can find a quiet place to continue the digestion process. The food is regurgitated, a mouthful at a time, back up to the mouth, where the food, now called the cud, is chewed by the molars, grinding down the coarse vegetation to small particles. The cud is then swallowed again and further digested by specialized microorganisms in the rumen. These microbes are primarily responsible for decomposing cellulose and other carbohydrates into volatile fatty acids cattle use as their primary metabolic fuel. The microbes inside the rumen also synthesize amino acids from non-protein nitrogenous sources, such as urea and ammonia. As these microbes reproduce in the rumen, older generations die and their cells continue on through the digestive tract. These cells are then partially digested in the small intestines, allowing cattle to gain a high-quality protein source. These features allow cattle to thrive on grasses and other tough vegetation.

Gestation and size

The gestation period for a cow is about nine months long. A newborn calf's size can vary among breeds, but a typical calf weighs . Adult size and weight vary significantly among breeds and sex. Steers are generally slaughtered before reaching . Breeding stock may be allowed a longer lifespan, occasionally living as long as 25 years. The oldest recorded cow, Big Bertha, died at the age of 48 in 1993.

Reproduction

On farms it is very common to use artificial insemination (AI), a medically assisted reproduction technique consisting of the artificial deposition of semen in the female's genital tract. It is used in cases where the spermatozoa can not reach the fallopian tubes or by choice of the owner of the animal. It consists of transferring, to the uterine cavity, spermatozoa previously collected and processed, with the selection of morphologically more normal and mobile spermatozoa.

A cow's udder contains two pairs of mammary glands, (commonly referred to as ''teats'') creating four "quarters". The front ones are referred to as ''fore quarters'' and the rear ones '