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Just A Touch Of Some Beef Cattle Biology and
Terminology
Biology.
Cattle are ruminants, meaning that they have a unique digestive system that
allows them to synthesize amino acids. This allows 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. It can hold up to 40
gallons of digestible feed in a mature cow. The abomasum is most like the human
stomach; this is why it is known as the "True Stomach."
A ruminant is any hooved animal that digests its food in two steps, first by
eating the raw material and regurgitating a semi-digested form known as cud,
then eating the cud. Ruminants include cows, goats, sheep, camels, llamas,
giraffes, bison, buffalos, deer, wildebeest, and antelope. The suborder
Ruminantia includes all those except the camels and llamas, which are Tylopoda.
Ruminants also share another anatomical feature in that they all have an even
number of toes.
Ruminants have a stomach with four chambers which are the rumen, reticulum,
omasum, and abomasum. In the first two chambers, the rumen and the reticulum,
the food is mixed with bile to form the cud (or bolus). Especially, cellulose is
broken down into glucose in these chambers using symbiotic bacteria. The cud is
then regurgitated, chewed slowly to completely mix it with the bile, and it
further breaks down fibers. The re-swallowed cud then passes through the rumen
into the next stomach chambers, the omasum, where water is removed. Then, the
cud is moved to the last chamber, the abomasum. The digested food in the
abomasum is finally sent to the small intestine, where the absorption of the
nutrients occurs.
It is interesting to note that almost all glucose produced by the breaking down
of cellulose is used by the symbiotic bacteria. Ruminants take their energy in
the volatile fatty acids produced by these bacteria: acetic acid, propionic acid
and butyric acid.
A popular misconception about cattle (primarily bulls) is that they are enraged
by the color red. This is incorrect; cattle are totally color-blind, and can
only see in grayscale. The main source of this rumor is the fact that Matadors
traditionally use red-colored capes to provoke bulls into attacking. In fact,
the red color is merely traditional; the movement of the cape is the attractant.
Terminology.
Young cattle are called calves. A young male is called a bull-calf; a young
female is called a heifer (pronounced "heffer"). 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 (not to be confused with the related wild musk ox). 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.
There is no singular equivalent to "cattle" other than the various gender and
age-specific terms (though "catron" is occasionally seen as a half-serious
proposal). "Cow" is probably the closest to being gender-neutral, although it is
usually understood to mean female (females of other animals, such as whales or
elephants, are also called cows.) Some Canadian, Scottish, Australian and New
Zealand farmers use the term "cattlebeast". "Neat" (horned oxen, from which we
get "neatsfoot oil"), "beef" (young ox) and "beefing" (young animal fit for
slaughtering) are obsolete terms. Cattle raised for human consumption are called
beef cattle. Cows of certain breeds that are kept for the milk they give are
called dairy cows. Herds are counted as, for example, "one hundred head". The
term cattle itself is not a plural, but a mass noun. Thus one may refer to some
cattle, but not three cattle.
The terms bull and cow are also used for the male and female of some other
species, including other bovids such as American Bison, but also less closely
related species such as moose, elk, elephants, whales, and sea lions. The terms
are used primarily to refer to animals that have polygamous or harem mating
systems, though "bull" in particular may be used because humans find the male of
a species daunting. |