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Cattle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Cattle

Friesian/Holstein cow

Friesian/Holstein cow

Conservation status

Domesticated

Scientific classification

Kingdom:

Animalia

Phylum:

Chordata

Class:

Mammalia

Order:

Artiodactyla

Family:

Bovidae

Subfamily:

Bovinae

Genus:

Bos

Species:

B. taurus

Binomial name

Bos taurus
Linnaeus, 1758

 

Cattle (often called cows in vernacular and contemporary usage, 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 1.4 billion head of cattle in the world today.[1]

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.[2] 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. 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.

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 universally used 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). This is a rare situation in the English language and hence a source of confusion. 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 by the general population 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". In some areas of the American South (particularly the Appalachian region) the local inhabitants call an individual animal a "beef critter". This was common until the 1960's and has faded from usage in all but a few areas and even then it is used mostly among the aged inhabitants.

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'.

Young cattle are called calves. A young female before she has calved is called a 'heifer' [3][4] (pronounced /ˈhɛfəɹ/, "heffer"). A young female that has had only one calf is sometimes called a "first-calf heifer." A castrated male is 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 who has had more than two calves is called a 'cow'. The archaic plural of cow is 'kine' or 'kyne' (which comes from the same English stem as 'cow'). The adjective applying to cattle is 'bovine'.

Biology

 

An Austrian cow

An Austrian cow

Cattle are ruminants, meaning that they have a digestive system that allows them to utilize otherwise undigestible foods by repeatedly regurgitating and rechewing them as "cud." The cud is then reswallowed and further digested by specialized microorganisms that live in the rumen. These microbes are primarily responsible for breaking down cellulose and other carbohydrates into 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 cattle to thrive on grasses and other vegetation.

Cattle have one stomach, with four compartments. They are the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum, the rumen being the largest compartment. Cattle sometimes consume metal objects which are deposited in the reticulum, the smallest compartment, 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. The myth arose from the use of red capes in the sport of bullfighting; in fact, two different capes are used. The capote is a large, flowing cape that is magenta and yellow. The more famous muleta is the smaller, red cape, used exclusively for the final, fatal segment of the fight. It is not the color of the cape that angers the bull, but rather the movement of the fabric that irritates the bull and incites it to charge.

The gestation period for a cow is nine months. A newborn calf weighs approximately 35-45kg. Cows can live up to be 25 years.

A cow emits a large amount of methane gas in a single day; 95% of this methane is produced through belching, not flatulence [5]. As methane is a potent greenhouse gas (23 times as warming as carbon dioxide), research is underway on dietary supplements that can reduce these releases.[6].

 

 

 

Wikipedia

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cattle&action=history

 

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