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The meat of adult cattle is known as beef, and that of calves as veal. Other body parts are used as food products, including blood, liver, kidney, heart and oxtail. Approximately 300 million cattle, including dairy animals, are slaughtered each year for food. [99] About a quarter of the world's meat comes from cattle. [100]
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.
Female cattle, also referred to as "heifers" in agriculture, will gradually enter standing estrus, or "standing heat," starting at puberty between 9 and 15 months of age. The cow estrous cycle typically lasts 21 days. [5] Standing estrus is a visual cue which signifies sexual receptivity for mounting by male cattle.
This cow is known to produce good beef in poor conditions but needs care to protect it from becoming overweight. It was the quality of Irish Moiled beef that had saved the breed from extinction. [7] The Irish Moiled cow has a gestation period of about nine months if kept at a decent health.
Within the American beef cattle industry, the older term beef (plural beeves) is still used to refer to an animal of either sex. Some Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and British people use the term beast. [11] Cattle bred specifically for milk production are called milking or dairy cattle; [1] a cow kept to provide milk for one family may be ...
Most beef cattle are mated naturally, whereby a bull is released into a herd of cows approximately 55 days after the calving period, depending on the cows' body condition score (BCS). If it was a cow's first time calving, she will take longer to re-breed by at least 10 days. [4]
As the cow's gestation period is a little over 9 months this means the cow must be inseminated by the age of 15 months. Because the breeding process is inefficient, most producers aim to first breed their heifers between 12 and 14 months.
Mature bulls weigh between 700 and 800 kg (1,500 and 1,800 lb) and cows range from 400 to 500 kg (900 to 1,100 lb). The calves are just 25 to 30 kg (60 to 70 lb) when born and already have well-muscled rumps. The conformation of adult cattle resembles that of the Murray Grey, the breed from which they were originally derived. As a breed, they ...