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Other than the few bulls needed for breeding, the vast majority of male cattle are castrated as calves and are used as oxen or slaughtered for meat before the age of three years. Thus, in a pastured herd, any calves or herd bulls usually are clearly distinguishable from the cows due to distinctively different sizes and clear anatomical differences.
Mouthing a two tooth grass-fed Murray Grey heifer prior to sale. The age of cattle is determined chiefly by examination of the teeth, and less perfectly by the horn rings or the length of the tail brush; due to bang-tailing, which is the act of cutting the long hairs at the tip of the tail short to identify the animal after management practices, the last method is the least reliable.
Cow–calf operations are widespread throughout beef-producing countries, [5] and the goal of a cow–calf operation is to produce young beef cattle, which are usually sold. True to the name, farm and ranch herds consist mostly of adult female cows, their calves, and young females, called heifers, which will produce calves once of breeding age.
Coloration varies with breed; common colors are black, white, and red/brown, and some breeds are spotted or have mixed colors. [6] Bulls are larger than cows of the same breed by up to a few hundred kilograms. British Hereford cows, for example, weigh 600–800 kg (1,300–1,800 lb), while the bulls weigh 1,000–1,200 kg (2,200–2,600 lb). [7]
Domestic cows can live beyond 20 years; [12] however, those raised for dairy rarely live that long, as the average cow is removed from the dairy herd around age six and marketed for beef. [14] In 2014, roughly 9.5% of the cattle slaughtered in the U.S. were culled dairy cows – cows that can no longer be seen as an economic asset to the dairy ...
Young bulls will dominate adult cows when they reached around 2 years of age. Calves from the top ranking cow were given higher social status, despite minimal intervention from their mother. Playfighting, licking and mounting were seen as friendly contact. [27] [28] Breeding occurred in May and June, with heifers first giving birth at 2–3 ...
Dairy cows need to produce one calf each year in order to remain in milk production. Heifer (female) calves will nearly always become a replacement dairy cow. Some dairy heifers grow up to be mothers of beef cattle. Male dairy calves are generally reared for beef or veal; relatively few are kept for use as breeding stock.
Selective breeding has been responsible for large increases in productivity. For example, in 2007, a typical broiler chicken at eight weeks old was 4.8 times as heavy as a bird of similar age in 1957, [36] while in the thirty years to 2007, the average milk yield of a dairy cow in the United States nearly doubled. [36]