Concepts and words
193 cattle words explained in plain language: the hump, the dewlap and the poll, heifers and steers, herd books and crossbreeding, transhumance and the drove road, and the cattle of faith and sport.
A
- A2 milk
- Milk from cows carrying only the A2 form of the protein beta-casein; a description of its protein type.
- Almabtrieb
- The autumn return of cattle from the high alpine pastures to the valleys, with decorated cows.
- Alpage
- A high mountain pasture grazed only in summer, often with a hut for making cheese.
- Apis
- The sacred bull of Memphis in ancient Egypt, chosen by his markings and buried with great ceremony.
- Artificial insemination
- Placing semen from a chosen bull into a cow by hand, without natural mating.
- Auðumbla
- The primeval cow of Norse myth, whose milk fed the first giant and whose licking freed the first god.
- Aurochs
- The wild ox of Eurasia and North Africa, ancestor of all domestic cattle, which died out in 1627.
B
- Back-breeding
- Selective breeding of domestic cattle to bring back the look and habits of the extinct aurochs.
- Backcrossing
- Mating a crossbred animal back to one of its parent breeds.
- Banteng
- A wild ox of Southeast Asia whose domestic form is Bali cattle.
- Bell cow
- The lead cow of a herd, wearing the bell that the others follow.
- Belted
- Dark at both ends with a broad white band around the middle of the body.
- Bloat
- A dangerous build-up of gas in the rumen that swells a cow's left side.
- Boma
- An enclosure of thorn bushes that protects cattle at night in East Africa.
- Bovine tuberculosis
- A chronic bacterial disease of cattle caused by Mycobacterium bovis, controlled by testing herds.
- Branding
- Marking cattle permanently on the hide with an owner's sign, made with a hot or very cold iron.
- Breed
- A group of cattle with a shared ancestry and look that, mated together, pass on that type.
- Breed society
- An association of breeders that keeps a breed's herd book, sets its standard and promotes it.
- Bride wealth
- Gifts, often of cattle, given by a groom's family to the bride's family to seal a marriage.
- Brindle
- A coat of dark stripes over a lighter ground colour, like the marks of a tiger.
- Brisket
- The lower chest of a cow, between and in front of the forelegs.
- Brucellosis
- A bacterial disease causing abortion in cattle, controlled by vaccination and testing.
- BSE
- A fatal brain disease of cattle caused by misfolded proteins, first identified in Britain in 1986.
- Bull
- An adult male bovine that has not been castrated and is kept for breeding.
- Bull of Heaven
- The divine bull sent against Gilgamesh in the Mesopotamian epic, killed by him and Enkidu.
- Bull riding
- A rodeo event in which a rider tries to stay on a bucking bull for eight seconds, holding on with one hand.
- Bull wrestling
- Contests in which two bulls push head to head until one gives way, held in Japan, Turkey, Oman and elsewhere.
- Bull-leaping
- A Bronze Age Cretan ritual or sport in which young people grasped a charging bull's horns and vaulted over its back.
- Bullfighting
- A spectacle in which people confront a bull in an arena, in several styles across Spain, Portugal, southern France and Latin America.
- Bullock
- A castrated male bovine; in India and Australia, especially one used for draught work.
- Bullock cart
- A two-wheeled cart drawn by a pair of bullocks or oxen, long the main farm transport of South Asia.
- Bullock cart race
- Races of bullock pairs pulling light carts, held in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and elsewhere.
- Butterfat
- The fat in milk, measured as a percentage, which gives cream, butter and ghee.
C
- Calf
- A young bovine from birth until weaning, usually up to about six to ten months old.
- Calving
- The birth of a calf, and the season when a herd's calves are born.
- Cattle camp
- A seasonal camp where herders and their cattle live together, especially in the dry season in South Sudan.
- Cattle complex
- Melville Herskovits's 1926 term for the central place of cattle in the social and religious life of East African peoples.
- Cattle dog
- A dog bred to herd and drive cattle, often by nipping at their heels.
- Cattle drive
- Moving a large herd overland on foot, from range to market or between grazing lands.
- Cattle egret
- A small white heron that follows grazing cattle to catch the insects they disturb.
- Cattle fair
- A large periodic market where cattle are bought and sold, often alongside a religious festival.
- Cattle grid
- A row of bars across a road over a shallow pit, which vehicles can cross but cattle will not.
- Cattle of Helios
- The sacred herds of the sun god in Homer's Odyssey, whose killing by Odysseus's crew brought their doom.
- Cattle raiding
- The taking of cattle by force from another group, long a part of herding life in many regions.
- Cattle show
- An event where cattle are exhibited and judged against breed standards for prizes.
- Cattle station
- A large cattle property in Australia, often thousands of square kilometres in size.
- Cloven hoof
- The hoof of cattle, divided into two toes, each with its own horny claw.
- Colostrum
- The thick first milk a cow makes after calving, rich in antibodies for the newborn calf.
- Colour-sided
- A pattern with coloured sides and white along the back and underside of the body.
- Combat de reines
- Contests in the Valais and the Aosta Valley in which Hérens cows push each other to decide a queen.
- Composite breed
- A breed founded by crossing two or more breeds and then breeding the crosses together until the type is fixed.
- Conformation
- The shape and structure of an animal's body, judged against what suits its breed and purpose.
- Conservation grazing
- Using grazing animals to keep wild habitats such as meadows, heaths and wetlands open.
- Cow
- A grown female bovine that has had at least one calf; in everyday speech, any domestic cattle.
- Cow protection laws
- Laws that restrict or prohibit the slaughter of cattle, found in most Indian states and in Nepal.
- Cowbell
- A bell hung from a cow's neck so herders can hear where the animals are.
- Cowboy
- A mounted cattle herder of the North American West.
- Crossbreeding
- Mating animals of different breeds to combine their strengths in the offspring.
- Cud
- Food brought back up from the rumen to be chewed again, as cattle rest.
D
- Dehorning
- The removal of horns, or of the horn buds in young calves, to make cattle safer to handle.
- Désalpe
- The autumn descent of herds from alpine pastures in French-speaking Switzerland and the French Alps.
- Dewlap
- The loose fold of skin hanging under the throat and chest, very large in zebu cattle.
- Dinka
- A people of South Sudan whose life, language and art centre on cattle.
- Domestication
- The slow process by which wild aurochs became herd animals living with people, beginning more than 10,000 years ago.
- Double muscling
- An inherited condition giving cattle greatly enlarged muscles, especially over the hindquarters.
- Drover
- A person who drives cattle or other livestock over long distances to market or new pasture.
- Droving road
- A broad track used for walking livestock across country to fairs and markets.
- Dry period
- The rest of several weeks before calving when a cow is not milked.
- Dun
- A dull, greyish or yellowish brown coat colour, seen in Galloways, Dexters and Highland cattle.
E
- Ear tag
- A plastic or metal tag fixed in the ear and printed with a unique number to identify the animal.
- Earmark
- A cut or notch in a pattern on an animal's ear to show who owns it.
- East Coast fever
- A tick-borne disease of cattle in eastern, central and southern Africa, caused by Theileria parva.
- Embryo transfer
- Collecting embryos from a valuable cow and placing them in other cows to carry to birth.
- Europa and the bull
- The Phoenician princess carried across the sea to Crete by Zeus in the form of a white bull.
F
- F1 hybrid
- The first-generation offspring of two different breeds or species.
- Feedlot
- A yard where beef cattle are kept in pens and fed grain-based rations before slaughter.
- Foot-and-mouth disease
- A highly contagious viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals, causing blisters in the mouth and on the feet.
- Frame score
- A number, usually from 1 to 9, describing a beef animal's skeletal size from its hip height and age.
- Freemartin
- A usually infertile heifer born as twin to a bull calf.
- Fulani
- A people spread across West and Central Africa, many of them herders who move cattle with the seasons.
G
- Gau Mata
- The Hindu idea of the cow as a mother, honoured for the milk she gives and treated as sacred.
- Gaucho
- The horseback herder of the pampas of Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil.
- Gaushala
- A shelter where cows, especially old, unproductive or abandoned ones, are kept and cared for.
- Gayal
- The semi-wild domestic bovine of Northeast India, Myanmar, Bhutan and Bangladesh, descended from the gaur.
- Genomic selection
- Choosing breeding animals by reading many DNA markers to predict their genetic merit early in life.
- Gestation
- The length of pregnancy in cattle, about nine months or roughly 280 to 290 days.
- Go-daan
- The Hindu gift of a cow, given as an act of merit, often at life's turning points.
- Gobar
- Cow dung, used across South Asia as fuel, plaster, fertiliser and in ritual.
- Golden calf
- The golden image of a calf made by the Israelites in the Book of Exodus while Moses was on Mount Sinai.
- Gopala
- Krishna as the cowherd boy of Braj, protector of cows.
- Gopashtami
- A Hindu festival honouring cows and cowherds, on the eighth day of the bright half of Kartika.
- Govardhan
- The hill near Mathura that Krishna lifted to shelter the cowherds, honoured on the day after Diwali.
- Grading up
- Turning a herd of one breed into another by using purebred bulls of the new breed generation after generation.
- Grass-fed
- Describes cattle raised wholly or mostly on grazed grass and forage rather than grain.
H
- Hamar bull jumping
- A coming-of-age rite of the Hamar people of southern Ethiopia, in which a young man runs across the backs of a line of cattle.
- Hathor
- An ancient Egyptian goddess shown as a cow or as a woman with cow's horns and a sun disc.
- Hay
- Grass and other plants cut and dried in the field to feed cattle in winter or the dry season.
- Heifer
- A young female that has not yet had a calf, or in some usage has had only one.
- Herd book
- The official register of pedigree animals of a breed, recording parents, births and identity.
- Heterosis
- The extra performance of crossbred animals over the average of their parent breeds.
- Highland coo
- The Scots name for a Highland cow, the shaggy long-horned breed of the Scottish Highlands.
- Hock
- The joint halfway down a cow's hind leg, matching the human ankle.
- Horn
- The permanent horn of cattle, a living core of bone covered by a sheath of keratin.
- Huaso
- The Chilean countryman and horseman of the central valley, known for rodeo.
- Hump
- The raised mound of muscle and fat over the shoulders of zebu cattle, or on the neck of sanga cattle.
I
- Inyambo
- The long-horned royal cattle of Rwanda, trained to walk and stand in ceremonies to song.
J
- Jallikattu
- A bull-taming contest of Tamil Nadu, held around Pongal, in which participants try to hold on to a running bull's hump.
- Judging
- Placing cattle in order of merit by eye and hand against the ideal for their breed and purpose.
K
- Kamadhenu
- The divine wish-granting cow of Hindu tradition, mother of all cattle.
- Kambala
- A buffalo race through flooded paddy fields in coastal Karnataka; it uses water buffalo, not cattle.
- Karapan sapi
- The bull races of Madura Island, Indonesia, in which pairs of bulls pull a jockey on a wooden sled.
- Kine
- An old English plural of cow, still met in the Bible and in poetry.
- Kolhu
- A mill turned by a bullock walking in a circle, used to press oil from seeds or crush sugarcane.
- Kraal
- A cattle enclosure in southern Africa, traditionally at the heart of the homestead.
- Kulning
- A high-pitched Scandinavian song used to call cattle and goats home from the forest pastures.
L
- Lactation
- The period after calving during which a cow gives milk, usually measured as 305 days in dairy records.
- Landrace
- A local population of cattle shaped by a place and its people rather than by a written breed standard.
- Lascaux
- A cave in south-west France whose walls hold large paintings of aurochs, made about 17,000 years ago.
- Lasso
- A long rope with a running noose, thrown to catch cattle.
- Lineback
- A white stripe running along the spine of an otherwise coloured animal.
- Llanero
- The cattle herder of the Llanos, the tropical plains of Venezuela and Colombia.
- Lobola
- The southern African custom of bride wealth, traditionally paid in cattle by the groom's family.
- Lumpy skin disease
- A viral disease of cattle spread by biting insects, causing firm lumps across the skin.
- Lyre horns
- Horns that grow outward and then curve upward like the arms of a lyre.
M
- Maasai
- A pastoral people of Kenya and Tanzania for whom cattle are the centre of life and belief.
- Marbling
- Fine flecks of fat within the lean of beef, used in grading meat.
- Mastitis
- Inflammation of the udder, usually caused by bacterial infection, the commonest disease of dairy cows.
- Mattu Pongal
- The cattle day of the Tamil harvest festival of Pongal, when cows and bullocks are bathed, decorated and honoured.
- Milk fever
- A drop in blood calcium around calving that leaves a cow weak and unable to stand.
- Milking parlour
- A building where cows are milked by machine, standing in rows, in a herringbone or on a rotating platform.
- Miniature cattle
- Breeds or lines of cattle that stand under about a metre at the withers when grown.
- Minotaur
- The Greek mythical creature with a man's body and a bull's head, kept in the Labyrinth of Crete.
- Mundari
- A small cattle-herding people of South Sudan, known for their large long-horned cattle and smoky cattle camps.
- Mustering
- Gathering cattle from open country so they can be counted, branded, treated or sold.
- Muzzle
- The bare, moist skin of the nose and upper lip, whose ridges form a print unique to each animal.
- Myostatin
- A protein that limits muscle growth; altered versions of its gene cause double muscling.
N
- Nandi
- The bull who is the mount and gatekeeper of Shiva, whose image faces the sanctum of Shiva temples.
- Nose ring
- A ring or rope through the soft septum of the nose, used to lead and control bulls and working cattle.
- Nuer
- A cattle-herding people of South Sudan and Ethiopia, well known in anthropology through E. E. Evans-Pritchard's study.
O
P
- Panchagavya
- A traditional mixture of five products of the cow, used in Hindu ritual and in some farming practice.
- Paniolo
- The Hawaiian cowboy, whose tradition began with Mexican vaqueros in the 1830s.
- Panjrapole
- A Jain-run refuge for sick, old and injured animals, found mainly in Gujarat and Rajasthan.
- Pasture
- Land with grass and other plants grazed by livestock.
- Persian wheel
- A water-lifting wheel turned by bullocks walking in a circle, raising pots of water from a well.
- Pied
- Coloured in large patches of white and black, red or brown, as in the Holstein Friesian.
- Plough
- A farming tool drawn through the soil to break and turn it before sowing, for millennia pulled by oxen.
- Pola
- A bullock festival of Maharashtra and central India, when working bullocks are rested, decorated and honoured.
- Poll
- The top of a cow's head between the horns, or where the horns would be.
- Polled
- Naturally hornless, born without horns because of an inherited gene.
- Polled gene
- The inherited variant on cattle chromosome 1 that stops horns from forming.
- Progeny testing
- Judging a bull's breeding value from the measured performance of his daughters or offspring.
- Pulaaku
- The Fulani code of conduct, combining self-control, patience, good sense and care for cattle.
Q
- Qurbani
- The sacrifice of a livestock animal at Eid al-Adha, in which a cow may be shared among seven people.
R
- Ranch
- A large farm for raising cattle or other grazing animals, especially in the Americas.
- Red heifer
- The unblemished red cow of the Hebrew Bible whose ashes were used for ritual purification.
- Rinderpest
- A deadly viral disease of cattle, declared eradicated worldwide in 2011.
- Roan
- A coat where white and coloured hairs are mixed evenly, giving a soft blue-grey or pinkish look.
- Rodeo
- A competitive sport grown from ranch work, with riding and roping events, popular across the Americas and Australia.
- Rotational grazing
- Moving cattle through a series of paddocks so each one can rest and regrow.
- Rumen
- The first and largest chamber of a cow's stomach, where microbes ferment plant matter.
- Ruminant
- A hoofed mammal with a four-chambered stomach that chews the cud, such as cattle, sheep and deer.
S
- Sacred cow
- An English idiom for an idea or institution held to be beyond criticism, drawn from the Hindu reverence for the cow.
- Sanga
- The long-horned African cattle that blend taurine and zebu ancestry, with a small hump on the neck.
- Scurs
- Small, loose horn-like growths on the heads of some polled cattle, not fixed to the skull.
- Shieling
- A summer hill pasture with a simple hut, used by herders in Scotland and Scandinavia.
- Silage
- Green fodder stored airtight so that it ferments and keeps, used to feed cattle out of season.
- Song ox
- Among the Dinka and Nuer of South Sudan, a favourite ox with which a young man identifies and about which he composes songs.
- Steer
- A male castrated young and raised mainly for beef, in North American and Australian usage.
- Stockman
- A person who works with livestock; in Australia, a skilled cattle hand on a station.
- Stockyard
- A set of fenced pens where cattle are held for sorting, sale or shipping.
- Switch
- The long tuft of hair at the end of a cow's tail, used to brush away flies.
T
- Táin Bó Cúailnge
- The central epic of early Irish literature, telling of a war fought over a famous brown bull.
- Taurine cattle
- Humpless cattle descended from aurochs domesticated in the Near East, the type found across Europe and much of Africa and the Americas.
- Tauroctony
- The central image of the Roman mystery cult of Mithras, showing the god killing a bull.
- Teat
- One of the four milk outlets of a cow's udder, sometimes with small extra ones.
- Temple bull
- A bull dedicated to a deity or released in the name of the dead, left to roam freely in Indian towns and villages.
- Threshing
- Separating grain from straw, traditionally done by driving cattle round over the harvested sheaves.
- Ticks
- Blood-sucking parasites that live on cattle and spread several diseases, a major problem in warm climates.
- Transhumance
- The seasonal movement of herders and their animals between summer and winter pastures.
- Trypanosomiasis
- A wasting disease of cattle caused by blood parasites carried by tsetse flies, known in Africa as nagana.
- Tsetse fly
- A blood-feeding fly of tropical Africa that spreads trypanosomes to cattle and people.
U
- Udder
- The milk-producing gland of a cow, made of four separate quarters, each with its own teat.
V
- Vaquero
- The Mexican and Spanish horseback cattle herder whose skills shaped ranching across the Americas.
W
- Weaning
- Taking a calf off its mother's milk, so that it lives on grazing and feed alone.
- White-faced
- Having a white face on a coloured body, as in the Hereford, a trait passed strongly to crossbred calves.
- Withers
- The ridge between the shoulder blades, the highest point of the back, where a cow's height is measured.
Y
- Yak
- The long-haired domestic bovine of the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalaya, kept for milk, meat, wool, transport and dung fuel.
- Year of the Ox
- The second year in the twelve-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac, associated with diligence and steadiness.
- Yoke
- A wooden beam that joins two draught animals so they can pull together.
Z
- Zebu
- Humped cattle descended from aurochs domesticated in South Asia, suited to heat, ticks and poor grazing.