Talk:Cattle

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Contents

[edit] Old Talk

Why in the world are there so many images in this article? This is overkill in the extreme. Unless there is a good argument for keeping them I will turn many of them into media links that are linked to the main image's description page. Just because there are many images of cows doesn't mean we have to use all of them. Also, what about people on dial-up modem? This page will take way too long to download with so many images. --mav

It does, indeed. And in my browser the top right image is overlapping the table. -- isis 23:40 Sep 21, 2002 (UTC)

Moving them sounds good. I'm against deleting them altogether, because as a digital encyclopedia we should have a lot of multimedia content and I'm conservative about deletion. But as an Internet encylopedia we should be open to dial-up users and users with small screens. --Ellmist Saturday, September 21st 2002

OK then. Which image should stay and which should be moved? --mav
BTW, I've had this same problem come up with a few articles--I have several images & feel I shouldn't display all of them, even if I want to. dragonfly has two and probably shouldn't; Spanish moss has 3 but shows only one. The other two are linked from the image description page of the first. Maybe we should suggest a policy on this one way or the other. --KQ 23:50 Sep 21, 2002 (UTC)
I think what you have done is perhaps the optimal solution. To improve upon it I would simply add a very short statement under the image saying "Larger and alternate images" and have that be a link to the image description page where the images are linked. --mav
I vote for "cow with calf" or "calves grazing" (the one beside it). --KQ
I vote for "calves grazing" too. --mav

Could you move some of them to pages illustrating the different breeds, please? I'd like to be able to see pictures to go with the names. -- isis 23:53 Sep 21, 2002 (UTC)

I'd like to move them to Images of cattle rather than on the :Image page that they're on now, because I think this is more in line with wikipedia:image use policy. comments? Martin

Make a Sounds of cattle, too. Thodin 16:35, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)
The article namespace is not appropriate for such an image gallery. We should tweak the policy instead to allow this use of image description pages so long as the article from which the page is linked (in this case cattle) has explicit text indicating to the user that the page they are going to has alternate images of the subject. Cattle already complies with this. In this case common practice is not reflected in the policy and the policy needs to be updated. If no images whatsoever were allowed to be displayed on image description pages then the developers would write one line of code to prevent this. --mav
There seem to be a couple of views - some people seem to agree with the policy (eg BigFatBuddha) and some people don't. Both sides have good arguments, I think. I'll raise it there... tomorrow! :) Martin


Small correction the difference between a cow and a heifer is a cow is a female that has produced offspring, and heifer has not produced offspring.

Not necessarily. Many producers, veterinarians, and others in the industry will refer to a "first calf heifer"--that is, a female that has borne a calf but not yet weaned it. For dairy cattle, they are often called heifers when they first join the milking herd, and called cows some time later, towards the end of their first lactation. Like many ag terms, usage varies from one region to another. Kat 21:51 7 Jul 2003 (UTC)

alert vandalism in article

[edit] Titles for breed articles?

Hey, anyone--I see that breed pages are titled in one of three ways: Breedname (cattle), Breedname cattle, or simply Breedname. One might think we ought to be consistent. Thoughts on which is the best? (I'm inclined to go for one of the first 2, and use the 3rd as a redirect...? E.g., "holstein" would link to or redirect to Holstein cattle." Elf | Talk 01:01, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Livestock - Collaboration of the Week

Anyone interested in improving the content of the agricultural information on Wikipedia, here is your opportunity. Livestock has been nominated as a Collaboration of the Week. H2O 23:51, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I'll keep it in mind but dog stuff tends to keep me pretty busy except when I'm slumming. :-) Elf | Talk 00:13, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Name

Here is small list of links where cattle is called Bos primigenius taurus. 1) [1] 2) [2] 3)[3] 4) [4] 5) [5] 6) [6] 7) [7]

Regards.--Wiglaf 11:21, 26 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Neat vs Meat

Maybe this will prevent others from making the mistake I just made: Neat really is an archaic word for cattle, not Meat. Elf | Talk 20:46, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Oh Well

I thought the Guatemalan Cow of Paradise being listed in the livestock was funny. If you clicked on it it forwarded to The Far Side.

Whats wrong with a little tribute to Gary Larson? I think it should stay.

[edit] Watusi

If anybody wants to create an article about Watusi cattle, following are some links. Watusi look awesome. Unfortunately there is already a "watusi" article in wikipedia but it is just a redirect. http://www.watusicattle.com/ http://www.crazyforcows.com/fow/fow16.shtml http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/ankolewatusi/

[edit] Obsolete terminology?

Where I live, the term "beeves" (multiple beef cattle) and its singular "beef" are still used by ranchers and people in the processing business. While I agree that they're uncommon, and falling out of favor, they're not gone yet, and I'm not sure it's appropriate to leave "beeves" out and mark "beef" as completely obsolete. I didn't change this in the main article, though, as I'd like to hear some other opinions. And, as a side note, the word "heifer" absolutely means "female that hasn't given birth to its first calf" around here. I see that Kat disagrees, but doesn't this at least rate a parenthetical? Gary D Robson 16:45, 2 May 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Sounds

I suggest we place sounds of cattle in the article; maybe that showing the sounds of the different cattle kinds (i.e. american cows vs. brahman). Thodin 02:55, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Top Front Teeth of cattle.

Someone please include the fact that they have none in more objective or scientific terms than I possess. =)Yeago 06:40, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Cattle population

Wouldn't it be nice to see some statistics on cattle population (worldwide, and perhaps in selected countries as well)? Has anybody got some figures they can share? (Somewhere I'm sure the US government has a public domain source we can raid...) QuartierLatin 1968 21:06, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

For example, according to the USDA, there were 94,882,000 cattle including calves in 2004 in the US.[8] Can it be I'm the only person who'd be interested in this? Please Wikipedia, don't let me down, you've always been an infallible geek magnet till now! QuartierLatin 1968 21:41, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
Um, it won't let you down if you add what you want yourself. You seem to have found some good info. Liblamb 03:23, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
Tip of the iceberg! World population figures, that's what I'm after! QuartierLatin 1968 22:16, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

I added some info on this. It would also be good if we could find a breakdown to beef cattle, dairy cattle, and "traditional cattle" Steve Dufour 12:58, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Breeding

There was a very fascinating program on last night about how farmers breed cows and how there is an entire profession devoted to collecting bull sperm. The program showed a vet doctor using a false vagina to collect the spern from the bull penis. Without drawing vandals and censors, that might be something to somehow put in this article. -Husnock 07:38, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Peer Review or FAC

This article is pretty good and probably should be put on the road to becoming a featured article. However, one critisism that will come up... no references. If someone can at least put in a few major references, we could move forward. ike9898 13:48, July 29, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Beeves

In Texas when thinking of cattle as meat-on-the-hoof, it's one beef, two beeves (check out Merriam-Webster); this is a case of linguistic analogy, based on calf/calves, and an interestingly irregular regularization of the noun, and probably other things too. I note there are at least three articles on Bos taurus, and agree there should be. There should be a 'fun bit' division at the end noting these things. The English language's management of this species is very interesting. --FourthAve 08:22, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Cross-breeds

The article currently states, "Hybrid individuals and even breeds exist, not only between European cattle and zebu but also with yaks, banteng, gaur, and American bison, a cross-genera hybrid." Is this an exhaustive list? Can cattle interbreed with, say, wisents? —Psychonaut 17:05, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

Apparently cattle–wisent crossbreeds are possible: see Żubroń. —Psychonaut 04:41, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Confusing Sentence about Oxen

I changed a confusing sentence that used to begin with "In addition to intelligence..." and now begins with "American ox trainers...". Does the sentence maintain its original meaning (whatever that was)? -Anonymous, 4 November 2005

[edit] frequent vandalism

Does anybody have any idea why this article is a favorite vandal target? Is there anything we can do to discourage this? A comparison of the last edit and the one 50 edits ago reveal few changes to the article, just a bunch of vandalism and reverting. Grrr. Liblamb 18:01, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

  • 'Cause cows are funny, as far as I can tell. Between "cattle" and "poop", the junior high kids have a field day. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 18:15, 8 November 2005 (UTC)
I've added the "frequent vandalism" notice to the top of this article, although I thought I'd leave NOEDITSECTION out until it is discussed here. The frequent vandalism notice appears on top of other such oft-vandalized articles as Hurricane Katrina, United States of America and Adolf Hitler, and I think it is warranted here. The full text (as would be seen when editing the page) is:
ATTENTION! PLEASE READ BEFORE EDITING!
Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is one of our most vandalized, and vandalisms are reverted immediately. Vandals of this page will most likely be banned immediately, no questions asked. You will not accomplish anything by vandalizing Wikipedia. If you wish to try test editing, you may do so in our sandbox located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sandbox . Thanks!
IN SHORT: DO NOT ABUSE YOUR PRIVILEGE TO EDIT THIS PAGE, OR YOU WILL BE REVERTED AND BANNED.
- Cuivienen 00:52, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMOO MOO MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! What vandalism? Flip Merav 21 10:17, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
Reverted some vandalism and bungled the summary. Live with it. Graniitti 13:09, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] shorthorn

I noticed that Shorthorn redirects to Milking Shorthorn which seems incorrect, based on my own limited knowledge of cattle. --Big_Iron 10:31, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

That is because we don't have an article specifically for non-milking shorthorns. If you wanted to expand Milking Shorthorn (which does somewhat mention that there are other shorthorns) to include the non-milking variety, I'm quite happy to move Milking Shorthorn to Shorthorn and make the milking one a redirect...or to assist however else editors decide they want things split up. --Syrthiss 12:55, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

I hope that everyone out there knows that cows dont actually say moo. I mean come on they cant talk, so therefor the cows arent saying anything. god you people think you know everything. ~haeli~

[edit] Terminology

The terminology section needs to be tidied up to make it read in a logical order. Ben Finn 18:33, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Cattle> Breeds of Cattle

CTPhil here, new and somewhat clueless Wikipedian. Thank you Syrthiss for reversing a change I made to picture formatting which apparently had unintentional consequenses. The last change was not me.

I had wanted to group and resize the pictures to take up less space, and give a more balanced appearance. I guess that can't be done without messing something else up. I had thought that I would fill the odd space that was created with a picture of my breed, but if that will just contribute to an overly large page, I will confine my photos to my breed's page. A question, then, If the wide picture of the Herefords was moved to the bottom, would it be possible that the list of breeds would then start at the top of the section, with thumbnails on the opposite side of the page? Phil 20:29, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Ok. It might have just been an anon user who saw my change and thought I was vandalizing or something. :)
Let me take a look and see what I can figure out for formatting. I had just been reverting it because I didn't understand from my first look what exactly went wrong. --Syrthiss 21:31, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
So let me see if my understanding is correct: you would like to have the list of breeds section have the breed links down the left side (as is currently), and thumbnails to the breeds down the right side? I'm certianly good with moving the big hereford pic to the bottom or thumbnailing it down (since people can click on it to look at the herefords in their green field... it is a nice pic). Does that sound right? --Syrthiss 21:40, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Sure, that sounds good. I'm not stuck on having it change, I was just trying to neaten things up a bit. It's good to see that someone is watching so closely. :) Edit: I just saw the new page with the Hereford pic thumbnailed, looks great! I like that the breed list starts at the top of the section. Phil 23:44, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Glad we could sort it out. :) --Syrthiss 14:37, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

There no longer seems to be a list of the breeds of cattle. A list of the acknowledged breeds of cattle each linked to their own site would be a great addition to this site. ---User:kevinSlack 15:25, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Volume of rumen and cow

As a vet I can assure you that the volume of a cow is not 1300 to 1500 litres. Most adult cows weigh about 500-550kg and if you assume that the average density of a living animal is about the same as water (cows just about float when swimming but have little above the water so it is a good approximation) then they should have a total body volume of about 550 litres. I think the rumen volume is also a bit high here. My understanding is that it is about 100 litres. I suggest that nobody puts it back until they have found some verifiable references on MEDLINE or Google Scholar--Malcolm Morley 07:28, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Why cows go moo

Why do Cows go moo? did they mention that in the article and i just missed it?

Why do cows go moo? why do humans talk? :) CattleGirl 07:53, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
Ken Sulak, a biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Gainesville, Florida, thinks he has found the answer:

"...cows mooing—announcing to the larger group the presence and position of individuals," Sulak said.

Somewhere in the main article, I think there should be some mention of the fact that a cow says "moo", seriously, I'm not joking!

Not a bad idea. It is also called "Lowing". We might also link to Wictionary [9] or [10]. Someone up higher also recommended some audio. --Mdwyer 02:35, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nose rings

Why do some cows in a herd have nose rings. Or is it just the bulls?

Does anyone know why nose rings are used in cows? Not all cows have them, just a select few in a herd. Don't think it is for pulling them, though maybe to guide them.


When you lead cattle, it is advisable to lead them with a nosering, as when this is used sparingly, it can help you keep a lot more control over your animal. A small tug on the nosering stops the cow from playing up, as the cow's nose is very tender. Some heifers have nose rings too, and i think in australia it is illegal to lead a full-grown cow or bull in the show-ring without a nosering and a nose lead. CattleGirl 07:14, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
To be hip!
Fantastic contribution 69.142.140.177 01:07, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Inline references

If this article had inline references, it would be an instant Good Article. - Samsara (talk • contribs) 01:45, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History of cattle

Does anyone know why there's nothing much on the history of cattle in here? And does anyone know when cattle first came to the United States, like in herds to be kept as herds and not all killed for food? 64.198.112.210 18:15, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I am wondering the same, though I couldn't care less about how they got to the united states, clearly settlers brought them with as white man has bred cattle for centuries. Does anyone think maybe they date back to Mesopataem (I can't spell) times as there was much mythology and art surrounding cattle in that area in the same era - 8000 BC ish. ???? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.47.220.10 (talk • contribs).

As it says at the end of the intro, see aurochs for the history of domestication. Mythology and links to art are in Bull (mythology). It could be a good idea to draw more attention to these and other "History of cattle" related articles. ..dave souza, talk 09:26, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

I would like to know in what part of the world the species originated. Pugsworth 03:03, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] trivia and "...in popular culture"

I moved this section to Talk:Cattle in popular culture. --Mdwyer 23:25, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Judging of Cattle

What would a person call a category of information related to what determines a quality beef animal? I assume that the common visitor has no clue what cattlemen look for in their cattle such as large hind quarters, top lines, etc. This would be a great little addition to this topic.

A page has been created. It's called Cattle judging. It shows exactly what we look for in beef cattle, and sometime dairy cattle. However, i only really know a lot about beef cattle- so feel free to write more about dairy cattle. CattleGirl 10:00, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other uses

Added an other use link to Ox (musician). Before you complain that it is currently just a stub, he is a member of the band that just won the eurovision song contest: Lordi. You can expect that article to expand rapidly, as the Lordi one did. skorpion 03:27, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Images

Rainbow arching over a paddock of cattle
Rainbow arching over a paddock of cattle

A profusion of pictures is understandable given that this is a subject easily photographed by many contributors, but I think numbers should be limited once further images are no longer adding to the information content.

In particular, in two of the pictures the cattle are quite small -- those with captions "Rainbow arching over a paddock of cattle" and "Herd of Herefords in a green field". The main information content of these seems to be in showing the herding behavior of cattle, and so I'll keep the one with the Herefords because it's the better of the two for that purpose, but I'll remove the one with the rainbow. So as not to lose material, here's a copy on the talk page. It's pretty, and I think it would be very suitable at rainbow but for the fact that there are several images there already.

I think we should be selective about adding any more images.

Arbitrary username 11:24, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] PURE GENIUS!

I was cobing the article history because I was bored, and I found this comedic gem. [11] Friggin' brilliant!! Almost as crappy good as Encyclopedia Dramatica! I mean...not even anybody could top that! Flip Merav 21 10:33, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

moo Supposed 21:11, 27 July 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Cattle judging

with what was said before, i was wondering if we should have a new page on the cattle judging subject, or if we should add another headline to this article. There is a lot of detail to be included on cattle judging, and i think that a new article is required, but i wanted to hear some opinions before i started this page. CattleGirl 07:19, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

New page for sure, CattleGirl. A description of cattle judging is not about cattle and would give you enough space to do justice to the topic. Go for it. Myron 02:15, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
New page created! Cattle Judging CattleGirl 10:38, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] lifespan

I wonder about this statement "modern dairy cows are slaughtered at about 5 to 7 years". I'm not sure, but I think that in the US, many dairy cows are slaughtered at age > 7. Can you confirm this? ike9898 16:12, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm unsure of what the actual dates are, but my impression in that dairy cows are not typically slaughtered in the traditional sense. That is, not for meat for human consumption. Dairy cattle provide meat that isn't very marketable. I seem to recall that it was because of their advanced age that causes their meat to be tough. Surely someone else can answer this better than I can, though. --Mdwyer 18:49, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
I'm pretty sure that dairy cow meat is turned into ground beef. ike9898 21:38, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
Any any animal product that'll fit into a grinder is turned into sausages - Peripitus (Talk) 09:24, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
Main reason why meat isn't very interesting is that milk is far more profitable, not to mention reproduction. When one or (and, actually) other come to lack, then the grinder comes in. As for texture, taste, etc.; Don't worry about it, it's the USA, man. They've got the flavors, they've got the textures, and, by Jingo, they got the money too!--SidiLemine 13:46, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cattle Contribute to Global Warming

http://www.tierramerica.net/2000/1126/acent.html http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/14/1060588524091.html http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/TG/AG/liverear.html Cows produce a lot of ethane, which should be mentioned. --Mr. Orange 62.168.125.219 12:05, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

yeah this accounts for 5% of Australia's total greenhouse gas emissions according to the Australian Greenhouse Office! Pugsworth 03:02, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Wait, why is it, then, that if cows have been around for a while, only now do they cause global warming? Arius Maximus 19:52, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Global warming didn't start yesterday. We've been burning oil for over a century and we've been burning coal before that and wood before that. It is a question of (a) contributions have increased recently as the human population grows and as more societies get increasingly industrialized and (b) the accumulation of effects over time. There may also be something of a positive feedback mechanism. I.e., as temperatures heat up, snow and ice melts, and without that white stuff there may be less heat reflected away, etc. Johntex\talk 20:22, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cattle Report

The cattle report made by wikepedia, is very factual and true. I own a farm in Innisfail, North Queensland, and have found that all of the information made by wikepedia is correct. I recommend this site for any people working in the Agricultural industry.


The Phantom.

Factual? If you have some 55 year old cows I would like to see them or maybe an 8 pound calf?

[edit] Biology (Gestation period)

The gestation period for a cow is the same as pigs: 5 months.

Is this right? I thought that it is nine months and four months, respectively. I also believe that a pig's gestation period is irrelevant here. And last but not least, shouldn't the numbers up to ten be spelled out?

No, that quote is not right. You are, at least for cows Gene Nygaard 02:57, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
The gestation period is 285 days and the birth weight is "weigh" off; more like 65 - 95 pounds. Also, the life span of 55 years may be right for the farmer but not the cow; how about 15 years.
"The average lifespan of a cow is 7 years. The oldest cow ever recorded was Big Bertha. She reached 48 in 1993." Cow facts, Australian Matt 06:59, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Winter

Why cows hate winter.

[edit] Cattle genders

Just to clear a few things up I read in a few earlier discussions, these are the terms for cattle genders-

  • Heifer- a cow that has not had a calf. (note- some people I know and in the article say that a cow is called a heifer before she has her second calf- this will have to be looked up. Widely, it is before she has had a calf- be it her first or second)
  • Cow- a cow that has had at least one calf.
  • Steer- a castrated male.
  • Bull- a complete male.

If you wanted to talk about a cow and don't know its gender, most people just say cow, however if you do know its gender, you should use the terms above. CattleGirl talk | e@ | review me! 07:42, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I have always learned and been told that a heifer is a female cow that has not given birth. A lot of people will refer to a cow that has had only one calf as a first-calf heifer. However, this is an oxymoron but is generally considered acceptable language since no terminology exists to define a cow that has had only one calf. I have never heard the term second-calf heifer used; after their second calf they are referred to as cows only. Dukemeiser 12:00, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] POV in Ox section?

I read this sentence, and I really feel it needs to be edited.

An ox is nothing more than a mature bovine with an "education."

Some sort of revision, or something. The word POV is just screaming out at me that it should be changed. Disinclination 17:02, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

The whole section on oxen seems to be one person's opinions, not that his or her opinions are wrong but they seem to be a little outside of the mainstream, plus giving us a lot of information on something that is nowdays of secondary importance in the whole cattle picture. Steve Dufour 13:03, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Blue cattle

Article says:

An "ox" is not a unique breed of bovine, nor have any "blue" oxen lived outside the folk tales surrounding Paul Bunyan, the mythical American logger.

What about the Belgian Blue? David.Throop 14:32, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

They aren't blue. Ian 19:35, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cows in fiction

may I suggest a link to the cows with guns wikipedia artical?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cows_with_guns —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.77.24.237 (talk) 11:39, 20 January 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Cattle husbandry section expansion

Hi, I'm totally new to Wikipedia editing. My toddler daughter is fascinated with animals and loves cows in particular and so we checked out the cow page the other day. I saw that the section on cattle husbandry was flagged to be expanded and, since I have a Master's degree in agriculture and grew up on a dairy farm, thought that I could write and reference this section without too much difficulty. However, access to the page is restricted. Maybe I could write it for the talk page and another, more senior editor could actually post it to the page if everyone agrees with what I've written?

Also, could I suggest a rewording of the paragraph on cattle judging? It says that cattle are used for judging, which on my first read suggested that cattle are used to test a person's judging ability. This is, in fact, true with organizations like 4-H but I think that the paragraph means to say that cattle are judged in competitions. A sentence on the original purpose of these competitions might also be in order. I'm not sure if they were originally government-initiated or farmer-initiated or both, but they used to be an important way of improving breeding stock. Cattle and/or farms that often won at these judging competitions were prized as valuable breeding stock and sold for higher prices. In Canada, breeding farms would take their cattle across the country on trains, showing their cows at agricultural exhibitions and then making their bulls available for breeding. Artificial insemination has put an end to this practice and cheaper and easier ways of showing off your cows are bringing an end to cattle showing as well.

If the community agrees, I will try to write an article on cattle husbandry with references over the next two or three weeks, which can then be further edited and discussed. There need to be separate sections for dairy cattle and beef cattle, and perhaps also for tropical cattle. In my experience (I currently live in Thailand, but originate in Canada), Northern breeds of either dairy or beef cattle raised in the tropics are husbanded more or less the same as in the North, but tropical breeds can be handled quite differently, so perhaps these three sections would cover everything. Rebecca Sooksom 08:41, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Rebecca, you don't need community agreement for this but thanks for asking. It's always a pleasure to see an expert editing wikipedia and as soon as the semi-protection expires late on the 15th of Feb you'll be able to improve this article although you can create new ones now. I've left a welcome message on your talk page that has some useful links on editing, markup text ( for formatting ) etc... Thanks for dropping in and happy editing ! - Peripitus (Talk) 10:41, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cow Maturity

Since a big part of raising cattle is breeding them (to create new breeds or just to make more cows), I'd think it's fundamental to mention what age a calf reaches maturity. DryaUnda 14:26, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fertility of Twin Calves

What would be the percentage of twin calves being born fertile? I know many times that twin calves are not fertile, but sometimes they are. Can anyone answer this question?

[edit] Typo: "thier milk"

Please change "thier milk" to "their milk" in the section on Hindu traditions. -- 212.63.43.180 18:25, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

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