Difference between revisions of "Cattle" - New World Encyclopedia

From New World Encyclopedia
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It has been suggested that the keeping of cattle was an important factor leading to the development of patriarchal, male-dominated, societies (Bhattacharya 2003).  
 
It has been suggested that the keeping of cattle was an important factor leading to the development of patriarchal, male-dominated, societies (Bhattacharya 2003).  
  
Different breeds of cattle came into being mainly depending on environmental conditions in different locations.  The Egyptian Longhorn was one of the first distinct breeds to develop and is pictured in the pyramids, and may be among the ancestors of modern African cattle. The Zebu, also called Braman, breed developed in India. Zebus have a greater resistance to heat and to insects than other breeds. Cattle were brought to the North America by the Spanish in the 1500s; from them developed the Texas Longhorn. In the 1700 and 1800s serious effort began to be made to improve the breeds of cattle by selection and cross-breeding.  Modern cattle breeds are mostly specialized to provide milk or meat and are much more productive than those of earlier times.  Among the most common modern cattle breeds are the Holstein-Friesian and the Jersey for milk, and the Angus and Hereford for meat.
+
Different breeds of cattle came into being mainly depending on environmental conditions in different locations.  The Egyptian Longhorn was one of the first distinct breeds to develop and is pictured in the pyramids, and may be among the ancestors of modern African cattle. The Zebu, also called Braman, breed developed in India. Zebus have a greater resistance to heat and to insects than other breeds. Cattle were brought to the North America by the Spanish in the 1500s; from them developed the Texas Longhorn. In the 1700 and 1800s serious effort began to be made to improve the breeds of cattle by selection and cross-breeding.  Modern cattle breeds are mostly specialized to provide milk or meat and are much more productive than those of earlier times.  Among the most common modern cattle breeds are the Holstein-Friesian and the Jersey for milk, and the Angus and Hereford for meat (OSU 2006).
  
 
==Cattle and human culture==
 
==Cattle and human culture==
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[[Image:Cows in green field - nullamunjie olive grove03.jpg|right|thumb|Hereford cattle grazing in a field in [[Australia.]]]]
 
[[Image:Cows in green field - nullamunjie olive grove03.jpg|right|thumb|Hereford cattle grazing in a field in [[Australia.]]]]
  
The world cattle population is estimated to be about 1.3 billion head. India is the nation with the largest number of cattle, about 400 million, followed by Brazil and China, with about 150 million each, and the United States, with about 100 million. Africa has about 200 million head of cattle, many of which are herded in traditional ways and serve mainly as tokens of their owners' wealth.  (CT)(SC).
+
The world cattle population is estimated to be about 1.3 billion head. India is the nation with the largest number of cattle, about 400 million, followed by Brazil and China, with about 150 million each, and the United States, with about 100 million. Africa has about 200 million head of cattle, many of which are herded in traditional ways and serve mainly as tokens of their owners' wealth.  Europe has about 130 million head of cattle (CT)(SC).
  
  
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==References==
 
==References==
* Bhattacharya, S. 2003. "Cattle ownership makes it a man's World". Newscientist.com. [http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4220]
+
* Bhattacharya, S. 2003. "Cattle ownership makes it a man's world". Newscientist.com. [http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4220]
* Cattle Today (CT). Website. (Accessed December 26, 2006)[http://www.cattle-today.com]
+
* Cattle Today (CT). 2006. Website. [http://www.cattle-today.com] (Accessed December 26, 2006)
 +
* Clay, J. 2004. ''World Agriculture and the Environment: A Commodity-by-Commodity Guide to Impacts and Practices''. Washington, D.C., USA : Island Press ISBN:  1559633700
 
* Clutton-Brock, J. 1999. ''A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals''. Cambridge UK : Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521634954
 
* Clutton-Brock, J. 1999. ''A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals''. Cambridge UK : Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521634954
 
* Huffman, B. 2006 ''The Ultimate Ungulate Page'' Website [http://www.ultimateungulate.com]
 
* Huffman, B. 2006 ''The Ultimate Ungulate Page'' Website [http://www.ultimateungulate.com]
 
* Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG). 2006.  "Global Invasive Species Database: Bos taurus".[http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=172&fr=1&sts=sss]
 
* Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG). 2006.  "Global Invasive Species Database: Bos taurus".[http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=172&fr=1&sts=sss]
 
* Nowak, R.M. and Paradiso, J.L. 1983. ''Walker's Mammals of the World''. Baltimore, Maryland, USA : The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801825253
 
* Nowak, R.M. and Paradiso, J.L. 1983. ''Walker's Mammals of the World''. Baltimore, Maryland, USA : The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801825253
* Oklahoma State University (OSU). 2006. ''Breeds of Cattle''.[http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/ Cattle Breeds website] -  
+
* Oklahoma State University (OSU). 2006. ''Breeds of Cattle''.[http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle] (Accessed January 5, 2007) -  
 
* Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 2004. ''Holy Cow'' [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/holycow/index.html]
 
* Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 2004. ''Holy Cow'' [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/holycow/index.html]
 
* Rath, S. 1998. ''The Complete Cow''. Stillwater, Minnesota, USA : Voyageur Press. ISBN 0896583759
 
* Rath, S. 1998. ''The Complete Cow''. Stillwater, Minnesota, USA : Voyageur Press. ISBN 0896583759
 
* Raudiansky, S. 1992. ''The Covenant of the Wild''. New York : William Morrow and Company, Inc. ISBN 0688096107
 
* Raudiansky, S. 1992. ''The Covenant of the Wild''. New York : William Morrow and Company, Inc. ISBN 0688096107
* Spectrum Commodities (SC). 2006. "Live Cattle". [http://www.spectrumcommodities.com/education/commodity/lc.html]
+
* Spectrum Commodities (SC). 2006. "Live Cattle". [http://www.spectrumcommodities.com/education/commodity/lc.html] (Accessed January 5, 2007)
 
* Voelker, W. 1986. ''The Natural History of Living Mammals''. Medford, New Jersey, USA : Plexus Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0937548081
 
* Voelker, W. 1986. ''The Natural History of Living Mammals''. Medford, New Jersey, USA : Plexus Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0937548081
 
* Yogananda, P. 1946. ''The Autobiography of a Yogi''. Los Angeles, California, USA : Self Realization Fellowship ISBN
 
* Yogananda, P. 1946. ''The Autobiography of a Yogi''. Los Angeles, California, USA : Self Realization Fellowship ISBN

Revision as of 16:11, 5 January 2007

Cattle
Cow.jpg
Friesian/Holstein cow
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 (commonly called cows) are among humankind's most important domesticated animals. They are even-toed ungulates or hoofed mammals, of the family Bovidae, or bovids. Through history they have had a tremendous effect on human culture, economy, and religion.

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 or humped cattle found in India; and the extinct Bos primigenius, the aurochs. The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and European cattle. More recently these three have been grouped as one species: Bos taurus; although some have suggested using the names Bos primigenius taurus, Bos primigenius indicus and Bos primigenius primigenius.

English terminology

Hereford heifer grazing
Calf suckling milk from its mother

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, such as the King James Version of the Bible, refer to livestock in general as "cattle", and cattle as "kine" (which comes from the same English stem as cow). Other species of the genus Bos are also often called cattle or wild cattle.

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 place names such as Oxford. But "ox" is now rarely used in this general sense. Today "cow" is frequently used incorrectly 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 and history

File:Lascaux.jpg
Cave painting of an aurochs from Lascaux, France
Pottery Bull from Iran, 1250 B.C.E.

Cattle, like other bovids, are ruminants. They have a unique digestive system that allows them to digest cellulose and other otherwise unpalatable plant materials with the aid of symbiotic microorganisms living in their rumen, or first stomach. Cattle eat mainly leaves and grasses. They need to eat about 70 kg (150 lbs) of food every day. They also need water every day and are dependent on a ready water supply.

Cattle are social animals, naturally living in groups or herds. In a herd individual cattle support each other by watching for predators, and sometimes working together to fight them off. They also groom each other and help each other find food and water. Among the cows in a herd there is a system of dominance with one cow the most dominant and the others ranked down to the lowest individual. There is also often a cow that acts as a leader and initiates movement to new feeding areas (Budiansky 1992).

The aurochs (pronounced ou' roks or our' oks) was found throughout much of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. It was a large animal. Males stood about 1.7 meters (5.6 ft) tall at the shoulders and weighed about 900 kg (2000 lbs). Females were about 25 percent smaller. Aurochs mainly lived in partly forested areas near rivers or streams. They formed herds with one dominant male and several females and their young. Other males lived in herds of their own. (Nowak 1983).

The aurochs was heavily hunted by early humans, although this was very dangerous, and because of this, and because of the conversion of its habitat to farm land, it gradually became extinct over much of its range. In historical times, their range was restricted to Europe, and the last one was killed by a poacher in Masovia, Poland, in 1627.

The first evidence of the domestication of cattle comes from the Middle East about 8,000 years ago. Over time domestic cattle became smaller than their wild ancestors. The most important early use of cattle was as draft animals, mainly to pull plows. They were also killed for their meat and sometimes as sacrificial animals. They were sometimes milked, but this was secondary in importance (Clutton-Brock 1999).

The keeping of cattle spread over most of the world over time. In many societies the ownership of cattle became an important measure of wealth and social status. They were also an important resource for poor farmers. Besides being used as a draft animal and for meat and milk, cattle also provided hide, bones, horns, and fat. Their manure was used as fertilizer, for fuel, and as a building material. John Webster, British expert on animal welfare says (PBS 2004):

You know, the great thing about the cow is that she can eat plants we don't, on land the farmer might not own, and convert milk into cash for the farmer. So a cow was often the most valuable thing a farmer owned. Even during a drought, they would hold some value. So cows became an icon for value; they were simply the most valuable animal around.

It has been suggested that the keeping of cattle was an important factor leading to the development of patriarchal, male-dominated, societies (Bhattacharya 2003).

Different breeds of cattle came into being mainly depending on environmental conditions in different locations. The Egyptian Longhorn was one of the first distinct breeds to develop and is pictured in the pyramids, and may be among the ancestors of modern African cattle. The Zebu, also called Braman, breed developed in India. Zebus have a greater resistance to heat and to insects than other breeds. Cattle were brought to the North America by the Spanish in the 1500s; from them developed the Texas Longhorn. In the 1700 and 1800s serious effort began to be made to improve the breeds of cattle by selection and cross-breeding. Modern cattle breeds are mostly specialized to provide milk or meat and are much more productive than those of earlier times. Among the most common modern cattle breeds are the Holstein-Friesian and the Jersey for milk, and the Angus and Hereford for meat (OSU 2006).

Cattle and human culture

File:Cow with calf.jpg
Cow with calf.
Oxen in India

Cattle have appeared in art from prehistoric times. They have also been important in religious traditions in many cultures. In ancient Egypt the cow was associated with the mother goddess Isis and in ancient Greece the bull with the father god Zeus. In both Western and Chinese astrology the bull or ox is one of the signs of the zodiac. In Judaism cattle were among the animals which were sacrificed and in Christianity the ox, or calf, is one of the four beasts in Revelation and is associated with Saint Luke. In Hinduism cattle are considered sacred and are protected from harm. Gandhi explained the Hindu feelings about cattle this way (Yogananda 1946):

The cow to me means the entire sub-human world, extending man’s sympathies beyond his own species. Man through the cow is enjoined to realize his identity with all that lives. Why the ancient rishis selected the cow for apotheosis is obvious to me. The cow in India was the best comparison; she was the giver of plenty. Not only did she give milk, but she also made agriculture possible. The cow is a poem of pity; one reads pity in the gentle animal. She is the second mother to millions of mankind. Protection of the cow means protection of the whole dumb creation of God. The appeal of the lower order of creation is all the more forceful because it is speechless.

Cattle have been used in sport as well. Bull-leaping, a central ritual in Bronze Age Minoan culture, still exists in south-western France. 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. Other sports such as calf roping and bull riding are seen as part of a rodeo, especially in North America.

Cattle relatives

Very closely related to cattle are the other members of the genus Bos. The yak, Bos grunniens, is native to the Himalaya Mountains of central Asia. Yaks are a very important domestic animal to the people of the area. They are also found wild. The gaur, Bos frontalis, is native to India and south-east Asia. It is also found both wild and domesticated. The banteng, Bos javanicus, is native to south-east Asia and the island of Bali, where it has been domesticated and is known as "Bali cattle". The kouprey, Bos sauveli, is very rare and is found only in a small area near the border of Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. It is not known to have ever been domesticated. All of these species, as well as bison, Bison bison and Bison bonasus, can interbreed with domestic cattle. (This is not known certainly in the case of the kouprey.) (Huffman 2006) (Clutton-Brock 1999).

Present status

Hereford cattle grazing in a field in Australia.

The world cattle population is estimated to be about 1.3 billion head. India is the nation with the largest number of cattle, about 400 million, followed by Brazil and China, with about 150 million each, and the United States, with about 100 million. Africa has about 200 million head of cattle, many of which are herded in traditional ways and serve mainly as tokens of their owners' wealth. Europe has about 130 million head of cattle (CT)(SC).


File:Lightmatter wild cow.jpg
A cow in the San Diego Zoo.
File:Brahman Baby.jpg
Brahman. Heredia Province, Costa Rica.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Bhattacharya, S. 2003. "Cattle ownership makes it a man's world". Newscientist.com. [1]
  • Cattle Today (CT). 2006. Website. [2] (Accessed December 26, 2006)
  • Clay, J. 2004. World Agriculture and the Environment: A Commodity-by-Commodity Guide to Impacts and Practices. Washington, D.C., USA : Island Press ISBN: 1559633700
  • Clutton-Brock, J. 1999. A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals. Cambridge UK : Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521634954
  • Huffman, B. 2006 The Ultimate Ungulate Page Website [3]
  • Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG). 2006. "Global Invasive Species Database: Bos taurus".[4]
  • Nowak, R.M. and Paradiso, J.L. 1983. Walker's Mammals of the World. Baltimore, Maryland, USA : The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801825253
  • Oklahoma State University (OSU). 2006. Breeds of Cattle.[5] (Accessed January 5, 2007) -
  • Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 2004. Holy Cow [6]
  • Rath, S. 1998. The Complete Cow. Stillwater, Minnesota, USA : Voyageur Press. ISBN 0896583759
  • Raudiansky, S. 1992. The Covenant of the Wild. New York : William Morrow and Company, Inc. ISBN 0688096107
  • Spectrum Commodities (SC). 2006. "Live Cattle". [7] (Accessed January 5, 2007)
  • Voelker, W. 1986. The Natural History of Living Mammals. Medford, New Jersey, USA : Plexus Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0937548081
  • Yogananda, P. 1946. The Autobiography of a Yogi. Los Angeles, California, USA : Self Realization Fellowship ISBN

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