Cattle (colloquially cows) are the most common type of large domesticated Domestication or taming is the process whereby a population of animals or plants, through a process of selection, becomes accustomed to human provision and control. A defining characteristic of domestication is artificial selection by humans. Some species such as the Asian Elephant, numerous members of which have for many centuries been used as ungulates Ungulates are several groups of mammals, most of which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. They make up several orders of mammals, of which six to eight survive. There is some dispute as to whether Ungulata are a cladistic (evolution-based) group, or merely a phenetic group or folk taxon (. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily What does and does not belong to each family is determined by a taxonomist. Similarly for the question if a particular family should be recognized at all. Often there is no exact agreement, with different taxonomists each taking a different position. There are no hard rules that a taxonomist needs to follow in describing or recognizing a family Bovinae The biological subfamily Bovinae includes a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large sized ungulates, including domestic cattle, the bison, African buffalo, the water buffalo, the yak, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes. The evolutionary relationship between the members of the group is obscure, and their classification into loose, are the most widespread species of the genus In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank (a taxon) used in the classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender", cognate with Greek: γένος – genos, "race, stock, kin" Bos Bos is the genus of wild and domestic cattle. Bos can be divided into four subgenera: Bos, Bibos, Novibos, and Poephagus, but these divisions are controversial. The genus has five extant species. However, this may rise to seven if the domesticated varieties are counted as separate species, and nine if the closely related genus Bison is also, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius. Cattle are raised as livestock Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning of "livestock" is common for meat (beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle . Beef is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of Middle east, Australia, Argentina, Europe and America, and is also important in Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Beef is considered a taboo food in some cultures, especially in Indian culture and thence and veal Veal is the meat of young cattle . Though veal can be produced from a calf of either sex and any breed, most veal comes from male calves of dairy cattle breeds. Veal has a tender texture), as dairy animals Dairy cattle are cattle cows (adult females) bred for the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cows generally are of the species Bos taurus for milk Milk is a translucent white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It provides the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. The early lactation milk is known as colostrum, and carries the mother's antibodies to the baby. It can reduce the risk of many diseases in the baby. The and other dairy products Dairy products are generally defined as foods produced from cow's or domestic buffalo's milk. They are usually high-energy-yielding food products. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy or a dairy factory. Raw milk for processing mostly comes from cows and to a lesser amount from domestic buffalos , but occasionally from other, and as draft animals An ox or bullock (Australia, New Zealand, India) is a bovine animal trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly adult, castrated male cattle, but cows (adult females) or bulls (entire males) may also be used in some areas. Oxen are used for plowing, transport (pulling carts or wagons or sometimes for riding), threshing grain by trampling, and for (pulling carts A cart is a vehicle or device designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from a dray or wagon, which is a heavy transport vehicle with four wheels and normally at least two horses, which in turn is different from a carriage,, plows The plough is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture. The primary purpose of ploughing is to turn over the upper layer of the soil, bringing fresh nutrients to the surface, and the like). Other products include leather Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry and dung Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus (or cloaca) during defecation for manure Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil. Higher organisms then feed on the fungi and bacteria in a chain of life that comprises the soil food web or fuel Fuel is any material that can be used to generate energy to produce mechanical work in a controlled manner. The processes used to convert fuel into energy include chemical reactions, such as combustion, and nuclear reactions, such as nuclear fission or nuclear fusion. Fuels are also used in the cells of organisms in a process known as metabolism. In some countries, such as India Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, while Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, cattle are sacred Cattle are considered sacred in various world religions, most notably Hinduism, but also Zoroastrianism and the religions of ancient Egypt and Greece. In some regions, especially India, the slaughter of cattle may be prohibited and their meat may be taboo. It is estimated that there are 1.3 billion cattle in the world today.^[1] In 2009, cattle became the first livestock animal to have its genome In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA mapped.^[2]

Species of cattle

Cattle were originally identified by Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus [a 2] (Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus [a 3], also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné , 23 May [O.S. 12 May] 1707 – 10 January 1778) was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also as three separate species. These were Bos taurus, the European or "taurine" cattle (including similar types from Africa and Asia); Bos indicus, the zebu Zebu , sometimes known as humped cattle, indicus cattle, or brahmin cattle are a type of domestic cattle originating in South Asia (the Indian subcontinent). They are characterised by a fatty hump on their shoulders, drooping ears and a large dewlap. They are highly adapted to high temperatures, and are farmed throughout the tropical countries,; and the extinct Bos primigenius, the aurochs The aurochs or urus , the ancestor of domestic cattle, was a type of huge wild cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627. The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and taurine cattle. Recently these three have increasingly been grouped as one species, with Bos primigenius taurus, Bos primigenius indicus and Bos primigenius primigenius as the subspecies.^[3]

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 (including the sanga cattle breeds, Bos taurus africanus) but also between one or both of these and some other members of the genus In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank (a taxon) used in the classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender", cognate with Greek: γένος – genos, "race, stock, kin" Bos Bos is the genus of wild and domestic cattle. Bos can be divided into four subgenera: Bos, Bibos, Novibos, and Poephagus, but these divisions are controversial. The genus has five extant species. However, this may rise to seven if the domesticated varieties are counted as separate species, and nine if the closely related genus Bison is also: yak The yak, Bos grunniens, is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. In addition to a large domestic population, there is a small, vulnerable wild yak population (called a dzo A dzo is a hybrid of yak and domestic cattle. The word dzo technically refers to a male hybrid, while a female is known as a dzomo or zhom. Alternative Romanizations of the Tibetan names include zho and zo. In Mongolian it is called khainag (хайнаг). There is also the English language portmanteau term of yakow; a combination of the words yak or "yattle"^[4]), banteng The Banteng , also known as Tembadau, is a species of wild cattle found in Southeast Asia. Banteng have been domesticated in several places in Southeast Asia, and there are around 1.5 million domestic banteng, which are called Bali cattle. These animals are used as working animals, and for their meat. Bali cattle have also been introduced to and gaur The gaur (Bos gaurus, previously Bibos gauris) is a large, dark-coated forest animal of South Asia and Southeast Asia. The largest populations are found today in India. The gaur belongs to the Bovinae subfamily, which also includes bison, domestic cattle, yak and water buffalo. The gaur is the largest species of wild cattle, bigger than the. Hybrids can also occur between taurine cattle and either species of bison Members of the genus Bison are large even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant species and four extinct species are recognized. The surviving species are the American bison, Bison bison , found in North America, and the European bison, or wisent (Bison bonasus), found in Europe and the Caucasus. While these species are usually (for example, the beefalo Beefalo are a fertile hybrid offspring of domestic cattle, Bos taurus, and the American bison, Bison bison . The breed was created to combine the best characteristics of both animals with a view towards beef production breed), which some authors consider to be in the genus Bos as well.^[5] The hybrid origin of some types may not be obvious – for example, genetic testing Genetic Testing : Gene tests , the newest and most sophisticated of the techniques used to test for genetic disorders, involve direct examination of the DNA molecule itself. Other genetic tests include biochemical tests for such gene products as enzymes and other proteins and for microscopic examination of stained or fluorescent chromosomes of the Dwarf Lulu breed, the only humpless taurine-type cattle in Nepal, found them to be a mix of taurine cattle, zebu and yak.^[6] Cattle cannot successfully be hybridized with more distantly related bovines such as water buffalo The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo is a large bovine animal, frequently used as livestock in southern Asia, and also widely in South America, southern Europe, north Africa, and elsewhere or African buffalo The African buffalo, affalo or Cape buffalo is a large African bovid. It is not closely related to the slightly larger wild Asian water buffalo, but its ancestry remains unclear. Owing to its unpredictable nature which makes it highly dangerous to humans, it has not been domesticated, unlike its Asian counterpart, the domestic Asian water buffalo.

The aurochs originally ranged throughout Europe, North Africa North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, and, and much of Asia. In historical times its range became restricted to Europe, and the last known individual died in Masovia Masovia or Mazovia is a geographic and historic region of east-central Poland. Administrative borders of the contemporary Masovian Voivodeship do not follow historical boundaries of the region. For example, a Masovian city of Łomża belongs instead to the Podlaskie Voivodeship; Skierniewice belongs to Łódź Voivodeship; while Radom,, Poland Poland /ˈpəʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska), is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of, in about 1627.^[7] Breeders have attempted to recreate cattle of similar appearance to aurochs by crossing traditional types of domesticated cattle, creating the Heck cattle Heck Cattle are the result of an attempt to breed back the aurochs from modern aurochs-derived cattle. For this reason, they are also known as "Reconstructed Aurochs" breed.

Word origin

Cattle did not originate as the term for bovine animals. It was borrowed from Old French Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century. It is a direct descendent of Old Gallo-Romance. It was then known as the langue d'oïl to distinguish it from the langue d'oc (Occitan language, catel, itself from Latin caput, head, and originally meant movable personal property Personal property, roughly speaking, is private property that is moveable, as opposed to real property or real estate. In the common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. In the civil law systems personal property is often called movable property or movables - any property that can be moved from one location to, especially livestock of any kind, as opposed to real property Real property and personal property are the main classifications of property in the common law. Real property refers to land and the improvements made by human efforts—buildings, machinery, the acquisition of various property rights, and the like. Real property is also termed realty, real estate, and immovable property (the land, to also include wild or small free-roaming animals such as chickens, which would be sold as part of the land).^[8] The word is closely related to "chattel Personal property, roughly speaking, is private property that is moveable, as opposed to real property or real estate. In the common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. In the civil law systems personal property is often called movable property or movables - any property that can be moved from one location to" (a unit of personal property) and "capital In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital are factors of production used to create goods or services that are not themselves significantly consumed in the production process. Capital goods may be acquired with money or financial capital" in the economic sense.^[9][10] The term replaced earlier Old English Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary register of Anglo-Saxon feoh "cattle, property" (cf. German German (Deutsch, [ˈdɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Globally, German is spoken by approximately 120 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers: Vieh, Gothic Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th century copy of a 4th century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable corpus. All others, including Burgundian and Vandalic, are known, if at all, only from proper names that survived in: faihu).

The word cow came via Anglo-Saxon Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary register of Anglo-Saxon cū (plural cȳ), from Common Indo-European gʷōus (genitive In grammar, the genitive case is the case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. It often marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun but it can also indicate various relationships other than possession; certain verbs may take arguments in the genitive case; and it may have adverbial uses (see Adverbial genitive). Modern English does gʷowes) = "a bovine animal", compare Persian Gâv, Sanskrit go, Welsh buwch.^{[citation needed]}

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 (part of the real property). "Wild cattle" may refer to feral cattle or to undomesticated species of the genus Bos. Today, the modern meaning of "cattle", without any other qualifier, is usually restricted to domesticated bovines.^{[citation needed]}

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 world such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the United States.^[11]

• An intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male is called a bull. A wild, young, unmarked bull is known as a micky in Australia.^[12] An unbranded bovine of either sex is called a "maverick" in the USA and Canada.
• An adult female that has had a calf (or two, depending on regional usage) is a cow. A young female before she has had a calf of her own^[13] and is under three years of age is called a heifer (pronounced /ˈhɛfər/, "heffer").^[14] A young female that has had only one calf is occasionally called a first-calf heifer.
• Young cattle of both sexes 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 simply feeders. After that, they are referred to as yearlings or stirks^[15] if between one and two years of age.^[16]
• A castrated male is called a steer in the United States; older steers are often called bullocks in other parts of the world^[17] but in North America this term refers to a young bull. Piker bullocks are micky bulls that were caught, castrated and then later lost.^[12] 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.^[18] 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.^[19] 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 purposes is called an ox (plural oxen); "ox" may also be used to refer to some carcase products from any adult cattle, such as ox-hide, ox-blood or ox-liver.^[14]
• A springer is a cow or heifer close to calving. ^[20]
• In all cattle species, a female that is the twin of a bull usually becomes an infertile partial intersex, and is a freemartin.
• 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 or polled cattle are still terms in use for naturally hornless animals, or in some areas also for those that have been disbudded.
• 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. Some Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and British people use the term beast, especially for single animals when the gender is unknown.^[21]
• Cattle of certain breeds bred specifically for milk production are called milking or dairy cattle.^[11]; a cow kept to provide milk for one family may be called a house cow.
• The adjective applying to cattle in general is usually bovine. The terms "bull", "cow" and "calf" are also used by extension to denote the gender or age of other large animals, including whales, hippopotamuses, camels, elk and elephants

Show All>>

What Links Here:

Recently Viewed Pages:

• Home
• Yeeha: Dictionary
• Cowboy: Auctions
• Cowboy: Encyclopedia
• Shopping: Ethnic and Regional: North American: Western and Cowboy: Directory
• Florida Cracker Horse: Blogs
• Florida Cracker Horse: Encyclopedia
• Horse Tack
• Recreation: Guns: Competition Shooting: Cowboy: Cowboy Reenactors
• US

Most Popular Pages:

• Feral Horse
• Castrated: Encyclopedia
• Florida Cracker Horse: Encyclopedia
• Arabic
• Horse Tack
• Cowboy Hat
• Packhorse
• Arabian Horse
• List of Western Movies
• Florida Cracker Horse: Blogs

Related 'Cattle' Searches: