Cattle

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Cattle (called cows in vernacular usage, kine archaic, or kye as the Scots plural of cou) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat (called beef and veal), dairy products (milk), leather and as draught animals (pulling carts, plows and the like). In some countries, such as India, they are subject to religious ceremonies and respect. It is estimated that there are 1.3 billion head of cattle in the world today ^*.

Cattle were originally identified by Carolus Linnaeus as three separate species. These were Bos taurus, the European cattle, including similar types from Africa and Asia; Bos indicus, the zebu; and the extinct Bos primigenius, the aurochs. The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and European cattle. More recently these three have increasingly been grouped as one species, sometimes using the names Bos primigenius taurus, Bos primigenius indicus and Bos primigenius primigenius. Complicating the matter is the ability of cattle to interbreed with other closely related species. Hybrid individuals and even breeds exist, not only between European cattle and zebu but also with yaks, banteng, gaur, and bison, a cross-genera hybrid. For example, genetic testing of the Dwarf Lulu breed, the only humpless "Bos taurus-type" cattle in Nepal, found them to be a mix of European cattle, zebu and yak. Cattle cannot successfully be bred with water buffalo or African buffalo. (See aurochs for the history of domestication, and zebu for peculiarities of that group.)

Terminology

The word "cattle" did not originate as a name for bovine animals. It derives from the Latin caput, head, and thus originally meant "unit of livestock" or "one head". The word is closely related to "chattel" (a unit of property) and to "capital" in the sense of "property."

Older English sources like King James Version of the Bible refer to livestock in general as cattle, or sometimes the archaic kine (which comes from the same English stem as cow). Additionally other species of the genus Bos are often called cattle or wild cattle. This article refers to the common modern meaning of "cattle", the European domestic bovine.

Young cattle are called calves. A young male is called a bull calf; a young female before she has calved the second time is called a heifer (pronounced "heffer"). A young female that has had only one calf is sometimes called a "first-calf heifer." In the USA male cattle bred for meat are castrated unless needed for breeding. The castrated male is then called a bullock or steer, unless kept for draft purposes, in which case it is called an ox (plural oxen), not to be confused with the related wild musk ox. If castrated as an adult, it is called a stag. An intact male is called a bull. An adult female over two years of age (approximately) is called a cow. The adjective applying to cattle is bovine.

The term cattle itself is not a plural, but a mass noun. Thus one may refer to some cattle, but not three cattle. There is no singular equivalent in modern English to cattle other than the various gender and age-specific terms (though "catron" is occasionally seen as a half-serious proposal). Strictly speaking, the singular noun for the domestic bovine is ox: a bull is a male ox and a cow is a female ox. That this was once the standard name for domestic bovines is shown in placenames such as Oxford. But "ox" is now rarely used in this general sense. Today "cow" is frequently used as a gender-neutral term, although it is meant to be used solely to mean female (females of other animals, such as whales or elephants, are also called cows). To refer to a specific number of these animals without specifying their gender, it must be stated as (for example) "ten head of cattle."

Some Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and Scottish farmers use the term "cattlebeast" or simply "beast". Obsolete terms for cattle include "neat" (horned oxen, from which "neatsfoot oil" is derived), "beef" (young ox) and "beefing" (young animal fit for slaughtering). Cattle raised for human consumption are called beef cattle. Within the beef cattle industry in parts of the United States, the older term beef (plural beeves) is still used to refer to an animal of either gender. Cows of certain breeds that are kept for the milk they give are called dairy cows.

Biology

Cattle are ruminants, meaning that they have a unique digestive system that allows them to digest otherwise unpalatable foods by repeatedly regurgitating and rechewing them as "cud." The cud is then reswallowed and further digested by specialized bacterial, protozoal and fungal microbes that live in the rumen. These microbes are primarily responsible for generating the volatile fatty acids (VFAs) that cattle use as their primary metabolic fuel. The microbes that live inside of the rumen are also able to synthesize amino acids from non-protein nitrogenous sources such as urea and ammonia. These features allow them to thrive on grasses and other vegetation.

Cattle have one stomach, with four compartments. They are the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum. The rumen is the largest compartment and the reticulum is the smallest compartment. Cattle sometimes consume metal objects which are deposited in the reticulum, and this is where hardware disease occurs. The reticulum 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 most like the human stomach; this is why it is known as the "True Stomach."

The aurochs was originally spread throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. In historical times, their range was restricted to Europe, and the last animals were killed by poachers in Masovia, Poland, in 1627. Breeders have attempted to recreate the original gene pool of the aurochs by careful crossing of commercial breeds, creating the Heck cattle breed.

A popular misconception about cattle (primarily bulls) is that they are enraged by the color red. This is incorrect, as cattle are mostly color-blind. This rumour derives from bullfighting, where matadores traditionally use red-colored capes to provoke bulls into attacking. The red color is merely traditional, as the movement of the cape is the attractant.

The gestation period for a cow is the same as humans: 9 months. A newborn calf weighs approximately 80-100 pounds.

Uses of cattle

Cattle occupy a unique role in human history, domesticated since at least the early Neolithic. Some consider them the oldest form of wealth, and cattle raiding consequently the earliest form of theft. Their ability to provide meat, dairy and draft while reproducing themselves and eating nothing but grass has furthered human interests dramatically through the millennia.

In Hinduism, the cow is said to be holy (and thus should not be eaten); "The cow is my mother. The bull is my sire.". ^* The importance of the cow is highlighted by the fact that a regional holiday called Mattu Pongal (literally Cow Pongal in Tamil) exists which is akin to a bovine thanksgiving day. In fact a divine cow named Kamadhenu is venerated as an all giving mother in a Hindu mythological story. It is common to see loose cattle walking the streets because of the holiness they hold in India and other countries that practice Hinduism.

In Latin America, Australia and the western North America cattle are grazed on large tracts of rangeland called ranchos, ranches or Stations (Australia).

In Portugal, Spain and some Latin American countries, bulls are used in the sport of bullfighting while a similar sport Jallikattu is seen in South India; in many other countries this is illegal. Other sports such as bull riding are seen as part of a rodeo, especially in North America. Bull-leaping, a central ritual in Bronze Age Minoan culture (see Bull (mythology)), still exists in south-western France.

The outbreaks of bovine spongiform encephalitis or mad cow disease have reduced or led to the prohibition of some traditional uses of cattle for food, for example the eating of brains or spinal cords.

Ox

Oxen (plural of ox) are cattle trained as draft animals. Often they are adult, castrated males. Usually an ox is over four years old due to the need for training and for time to grow to full size. Oxen are used for plowing, transport, hauling cargo, grain-grinding by trampling or by powering machines, irrigation by powering pumps, and wagon drawing. Oxen were commonly used to skid logs in forests, and sometimes still are, in low-impact select-cut logging.

Contrary to popular American lore, an "ox" is not a unique breed of bovine, nor have any "blue" oxen lived outside the folk tales surrounding Paul Bunyan, the mythical American logger.

An ox is nothing more than a mature bovine with an "education". The education consists of the animal's learning to respond appropriately to the teamster's (ox driver's) commands: in North America such as (1) get up, (2) whoa, (3) back up, (4) gee (turn to the right) and (5) haw (turn to the left).

American ox trainers favored larger breeds for their ability to do more work in addition to their intelligence (the ability to learn); for the same reason, the typical ox is the male of a breed, rather than the smaller female. Females are potentially more useful producing calves and milk. Also, the gait of the ox is often important to ox trainers, since the speed the animal walks should roughly match the gait of the ox driver who must work with it.

Oxen are most often used in teams of two, paired, for light work such as carting. In past days some teams were about fourteen, and even over twenty for logging. A wooden yoke is fastened about the neck of each pair so that the force of draft is distributed across their shoulders. From calves, oxen are chosen with horns since the horns hold the yoke in place when the oxen lower their heads, back up or slow down (particularly with a wheeled vehicle going downhill). Yoked oxen cannot slow a load like harnessed horses can; the load has to be controlled downhill by other means.

Oxen must be painstakingly trained from a young age. Their teamster must make or buy as many as a dozen yokes of different sizes as the animals grow. Ox teams are steered by commands or noise (whip cracks) and many teamsters were known for their voices and language.

Oxen can pull harder and longer than horses, particularly on obstinate or almost un-movable loads. This is one of the reasons that teams were dragging logs from forests long after horses had taken over most other draught uses in Europe and the New World. Though not as fast as horses, they are less prone to injury because they are more sure-footed and do not try to jerk the load. Many oxen are still in use worldwide, especially in developing nations.

Miscellaneous

For the mythology and lore connected with the bull, see Bull (mythology).
The ox is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. See: Ox (Zodiac).
The constellation Taurus represents a bull.
An apocryphal story has it that a cow started the Great Chicago Fire by kicking over a kerosene lamp. Michael Ahern, the reporter who created the cow story, admitted in 1893 that he had made it up because he thought it would make colorful copy.
Cows are venerated within the Hindu religion of India: According to Vedic scripture they are to be treated with the same respect 'as one's mother' because of the milk they provide. They appear in numerous stories from the Puranas and Vedas, for example the deity Sri Krishna is brought up in a family of cowherders and Lord Shiva is said to ride on the back of a bull. Bulls in particular are seen as a symbolic emblem of selfless duty and religion. In ancient India every household had a few cows which provided a constant supply of milk and a few bulls that helped as draft animals. Thus the Hindus felt it was economically wise to keep them rather than consume their flesh for a single meal. This notion translated into the attributed divinity of the Cow. See Sacred cow for more on this topic.
On February 18, 1930 Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in an airplane and also the first cow to be milked in an airplane.
A humourous anecdote among farmers suggests that instant death will come to anyone bitten by a cattle's upper front teeth. The joke is apparent to anyone knowing that a cow possesses no such teeth.
The first known law requiring branding in North America was enacted on February 5, 1644 by Connecticut. It said that all cattle and pigs have to have a registered brand or earmark by May 1, 1644. (Kane, 5)
The Evangelist St. Luke is depicted as an Ox in Christian art.
In Judaism, as described in , the ashes of a sacrificed unblemished red heifer that has never been yoked can be used for ritual purification of people who came into contact with a corpse.

Cattle in popular culture

Cows are thought by many to be inherently funny. This is largely because of the essentially stationary and unreactive nature of the domestic cow, which makes them appear wry, as well as their propensity for flatulence. The discordant sound made by a cow in distress is also held to be very funny.

Gary Larson's famous comic strip The Far Side frequently included cows in humorous situations.
The lilac-colored "Milka Cow" is a well-known symbol of the Milka brand of chocolate.
Since 1995, advertisements for Chick-fil-A restaurants have featured cows encouraging people to "Eat Mor Chikin."
The sound a cow makes is often used to create comedic effect. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the French shoot cows out of catapults. In the movie Twister, cows are flung about, mooing, by tornadoes.
In the game Fallout and Fallout 2, cows have mutated into Brahmin, which have two heads. They are important to the culture in the Fallout world, and the conjecture of Brahmin having only had one head in the past is considered false. These cows will sometimes say "Moo, I say!"
In the Earthworm Jim game series, the player can launch cows on see-saws for points. Additionally, many episodes of the Earthworm Jim cartoon series ended with a cow falling on a character.
In a Grape-Nuts television commercial and in the movie Kingpin with Woody Harrelson, in which he pretends to be Amish, there are scenes of men "milking" a bull, thinking it is a cow.
In the Computer Game Diablo II there is an area called the "Secret Cow Level" in which players fight an army of bipedal, polearm-wielding cows. They were apparently the precursor for the Tauren, a race of cow-like humanoids found in other Blizzard games Warcraft III and a playable race in World of Warcraft.
In Enter the Fist, a famous scene parodying The Matrix bullet time scene involves a 3D animated cow being fought by the hero.
A Texas Longhorn with burnt orange coloring named Bevo is the mascot of the sports teams at the University of Texas at Austin.
The popular nursery rhyme 'Hey, diddle-diddle' features a cow jumping over the moon.
In the movie Bubble Boy an Indian ice cream man is threatened by the Indian god Shiva because he accidentally ran over a cow. Later the cow is mangled and run over several times by a semi truck and some bikers while the man begs for Shiva's forgivness.
The Drawn Together episode "A Tale of Two Cows" features a character called Live Action Cow. The cow is a photograph that the animators manipulate in such a way as to suggest that the cow is performing all kinds of unusual feats when obviously, it is just a photograph being moved around.
In the animated television series South Park, the cow is the mascot for the local elementary school, and a highly celebrated symbol for the town. The episode Cow Days features a rodeo and carnival that celebrates the cow.
On the Pink Floyd album Atom Heart Mother, a lone cow standing in the middle of a field is depicted as the LP's cover artwork.
Bully for Bugs, one of the most popular Warner Bros. Cartoons, features a duel between Bugs Bunny and a wily bull.
In the computer game series "Worms", a "mad cow" herd that explodes after running around is one of the special weapons available in the game. It is a reference to the mad cow epidemic.
In Nickelodeon's Rocko's Modern Life one of the main characters and companion to Rocko is a cow named Heifer.
The Frank Zappa album Läther (pronounced "leather") features a Holstein cow with his trademark moustache and soul patch as well as an outline of Italy in its dark patches.
In the comedy game "Destroy All Humans", there is a mini-game where the player gains points by vaporizing cows.
The band Arrogant Worms has an anthem paying homage to cows entitled "I am Cow"

References

Cattle Today
Mahabharata, Book 13-Anusasana Parva, Section LXXVI
Kane, J., Anzovin, S., & Podell, J. (1997). Famous First Facts. New York, NY: H.W. Wilson. ISBN 0824209303.

External links

Cattle Breeds website - Oklahoma State University
Cattle.com - Comprehensive Beef Portal
PBS Nature: Holy Cow (about cows in general)
UK Lincoln Red Cattle Society
SearchCattle.com - Specialized Cattle Search Engine
Prairie Ox Drovers -Information, help, and encouragement to get started with oxen.
"Do McDonald's milkshakes contain seaweed?", The Straight Dope, 27-Nov-1992

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