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88-610: The Grant–Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site , created in 1972, commemorates the Western cattle industry from its 1850s inception through recent times. The original ranch was established in 1862 by a Canadian fur trader , Johnny Grant, at Cottonwood Creek, Montana (future site of Deer Lodge, Montana), along the banks of the Clark Fork river . The ranch was later expanded by a cattle baron , Conrad Kohrs (1866–1920). The 1,618 acres (6.55 km) historic site (originally designated

176-627: A National Historic Landmark in 1960) is maintained today as a working ranch by the National Park Service . Johnny Francis Grant was born at Fort Edmonton , Alberta, Canada. His mother died when he was only three years old, so he was sent to Trois-Rivières, Quebec , to be raised by his grandmother. His father, Captain Richard Grant, was a Hudson's Bay Company employee, and therefore, in his mid-teens, he left for Fort Hall, Idaho , to meet up with his father. There he learned

264-515: A dominance hierarchy . This is maintained in several ways. Cattle often engage in mock fights where they test each other's strength in a non-aggressive way. Licking is primarily performed by subordinates and received by dominant animals. Mounting is a playful behavior shown by calves of both sexes and by bulls and sometimes by cows in estrus, however, this is not a dominance related behavior as has been found in other species. Dominance-associated aggressiveness does not correlate with rank position, but

352-449: A feedlot for "45 days or more in a 12-month period". Historically, the cattle population of Britain rose from 9.8 million in 1878 to 11.7 million in 1908, but beef consumption rose much faster. Britain became the "stud farm of the world" exporting livestock to countries where there were no indigenous cattle. In 1929 80% of the meat trade of the world was products of what were originally English breeds. There were nearly 70 million cattle in

440-452: A cause of action for accidents involving wandering livestock on grounds of negligence. The Montana legislature then amended the statutes governing the open range to impose liability on livestock owners to motorists only for negligence. On roads in Idaho , an open-range state, livestock have the right of way: if an animal is hit and killed by a vehicle, the driver is liable for the price of

528-415: A cow is about nine months long. The ratio of male to female offspring at birth is approximately 52:48. A cow's udder has two pairs of mammary glands or teats. Farms often use artificial insemination , the artificial deposition of semen in the female's genital tract ; this allows farmers to choose from a wide range of bulls to breed their cattle. Estrus too may be artificially induced to facilitate

616-414: A dairy, which may be onsite at the farm or the milk may be shipped to a dairy plant for eventual sale of a dairy product. Lactation is induced in heifers and spayed cows by a combination of physical and psychological stimulation, by drugs, or by a combination of those methods. For mother cows to continue producing milk, they give birth to one calf per year. If the calf is male, it is generally slaughtered at

704-404: A diurnal pattern, with a stronger preference for clover in the morning, and the proportion of grass increasing towards the evening. When grazing, cattle vary several aspects of their bite, i.e. tongue and jaw movements, depending on characteristics of the plant they are eating. Bite area decreases with the density of the plants but increases with their height. Bite area is determined by the sweep of

792-619: A learning experiment had higher heart rates, indicating an emotional reaction to their own learning. After separation from their mothers, Holstein calves react, indicating low mood. Similarly, after hot-iron dehorning , calves react to the post-operative pain. The position of the ears has been used as an indicator of emotional state. Cattle can tell when other cattle are stressed by the chemicals in their urine. Cattle are gregarious , and even short-term isolation causes psychological stress . When heifers are isolated, vocalizations, heart rate and plasma cortisol all increase. When visual contact

880-504: A longer period of time than horses . Oxen are used worldwide, especially in developing countries . There are some 11 million draft oxen in sub-Saharan Africa, while in 1998 India had over 65 million oxen. At the start of the 21st century, about half the world's crop production depended on land preparation by draft animals. Cattle are not often kept solely for hides, and they are usually a by-product of beef production. Hides are used mainly for leather products such as shoes. In 2012, India

968-633: A misfolded brain protein , in contaminated meat. Among the intestinal parasites of cattle are Paramphistomum flukes, affecting the rumen, and hookworms in the small intestine. Climate change is expected to exacerbate heat stress in cattle, and for longer periods. Heat-stressed cattle may experience accelerated breakdown of adipose tissue by the liver, causing lipidosis . Cattle eat less when heat stressed, resulting in ruminal acidosis , which can lead to laminitis . Cattle can attempt to deal with higher temperatures by panting more often ; this rapidly decreases carbon dioxide concentrations at

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1056-681: A mix of taurine cattle, zebu, and yak. The aurochs originally ranged throughout Europe, North Africa, and much of Asia. In historical times, its range became restricted to Europe, and the last known individual died in Mazovia , Poland, around 1627. Breeders have attempted to recreate a similar appearance to the aurochs by crossing traditional types of domesticated cattle, producing the Heck breed . A group of taurine-type cattle exist in Africa; they either represent an independent domestication event or were

1144-466: A most successful team for over half a century. The winter of 1886–1887 was one of the harshest on record in Montana. Ranchers using the open range for their herds lost upwards of 90% of their cattle to brutal cold and lack of feed. In Eastern Montana, temperatures hovered at 30–40 degrees below zero for weeks on end. The summer of 1887 witnessed a great many ranchers in Montana go out of business. In

1232-582: A part of the German Confederation . At the age of 22, he became a citizen of the United States. He went to California during the gold rush days. He then moved on to Canada and arrived at the gold camps of Montana in 1862. He never struck gold, but he became wealthy by selling beef to the miners. Kohrs built his cattle operation until he owned 50,000 head of cattle and had grazing pasture of 10 million acres (40,000 km2). However, he had

1320-768: A powerful greenhouse gas, as a byproduct of enteric fermentation , with each cow belching out 100kg a year. Additional methane is produced by anaerobic fermentation of stored manure . The FAO estimates that in 2015 around 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions were due to cattle, but this is uncertain. Reducing methane emissions quickly helps limit climate change . Concentrated animal feeding operations in particular produce substantial amounts of wastewater and manure, which can cause environmental harms such as soil erosion, human and animal exposure to toxic chemicals, development of antibiotic resistant bacteria and an increase in E. coli contamination. In many world regions, overgrazing by cattle has reduced biodiversity of

1408-505: A quarter of the world's meat comes from cattle. World cattle meat production in 2021 was 72.3 million tons. Certain breeds of cattle, such as the Holstein-Friesian , are used to produce milk , much of which is processed into dairy products such as butter , cheese , and yogurt . Dairy cattle are usually kept on specialized dairy farms designed for milk production. Most cows are milked twice per day, with milk processed at

1496-428: A range of production and behavioral characteristics for both dairy and beef cattle. Cattle have played a key role in human history , having been domesticated since at least the early neolithic age. Archaeozoological and genetic data indicate that cattle were first domesticated from wild aurochs ( Bos primigenius ) approximately 10,500 years ago. There were two major areas of domestication: one in central Anatolia ,

1584-607: A setback when the severe winter of 1886–1887 left over half the cattle population in the northwest dead. Most cattlemen went bankrupt, but Kohrs managed to receive a 100,000 dollar loan from his banker, A. J. Davis. While the open range era was ending, Kohrs adapted successfully and was able to pay off the loan in only four years. Kohrs and his half-brother, John Bielenberg, turned to more modern methods of ranching , including buying purebred breeding stock, fencing his rangeland and raising and storing fodder . He became known as "Montana's Cattle King." Bielenberg helped Kohrs to run

1672-468: A third independent domestication from the North African aurochs. Whether there have been two or three domestications, European, African, and Asian cattle share much of their genomes both through their species ancestry and through repeated migrations of livestock and genetic material between species, as shown in the diagram. Cattle were originally identified as three separate species: Bos taurus ,

1760-456: A wider study mapped a further 4.2% of the cattle genome. Behavioral traits of cattle can be as heritable as some production traits, and often, the two can be related. The heritability of temperament (response to isolation during handling) has been calculated as 0.36 and 0.46 for habituation to handling. Rangeland assessments show that the heritability of aggressiveness in cattle is around 0.36. Quantitative trait loci have been found for

1848-404: A wild animal than livestock. Laws are still in flux. In Arizona , livestock must be fenced in within incorporated areas , but are still listed only as a potential nuisance for unincorporated suburbs. Therefore, in that state, bills were being pushed to get rid of this "antiquated" law. Those opposing the legislation said that "eliminating the law would put undue hardship on ranchers. However,

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1936-453: A young age to produce veal . Cows produce milk until three weeks before birth. Over the last fifty years, dairy farming has become more intensive to increase the yield of milk produced by each cow. The Holstein-Friesian is the breed of dairy cow most common in the UK, Europe and the United States. It has been bred selectively to produce the highest yields of milk of any cow. The average in the UK

2024-725: Is a diurnal rhythm in suckling, peaking at roughly 6am, 11:30am, and 7pm. Under natural conditions, calves stay with their mother until weaning at 8 to 11 months. Heifer and bull calves are equally attached to their mothers in the first few months of life. Cattle have a variety of cognitive abilities. They can memorize the locations of multiple food sources, and can retain memories for at least 48 days. Young cattle learn more quickly than adults, and calves are capable of discrimination learning, distinguishing familiar and unfamiliar animals, and between humans, using faces and other cues. Calves prefer their own mother's vocalizations to those of an unfamiliar cow. Vocalizations provide information on

2112-471: Is around 22 litres per day. Dairy is a large industry worldwide. In 2023, the 27 European Union countries produced 143 million tons of cow's milk; the United States 104.1 million tons; and India 99.5 million tons. India further produces 94.4 million tons of buffalo milk , making it (in 2023) the world's largest milk producer; its dairy industry employs some 80 million people. Oxen are cattle trained as draft animals . Oxen can pull heavier loads and for

2200-474: Is better than that of horses, but worse at localising sounds than goats, and much worse than dogs or humans. They can distinguish between live and recorded human speech. Olfaction probably plays a large role in their social life, indicating social and reproductive status. Cattle can tell when other animals are stressed by smelling the alarm chemicals in their urine. Cattle can be trained to recognise conspecific individuals using olfaction only. Cattle live in

2288-428: Is closely related to rank distance between individuals. The horns of cattle are honest signals used in mate selection. Horned cattle attempt to keep greater distances between themselves and have fewer physical interactions than hornless cattle, resulting in more stable social relationships. In calves, agonistic behavior becomes less frequent as space allowance increases, but not as group size changes, whereas in adults,

2376-504: Is contentious, and authorities such as the American Society of Mammalogists treat these taxa as separate species. Complicating the matter is the ability of cattle to interbreed with other closely related species. Hybrid individuals and even breeds exist, not only between taurine cattle and zebu (such as the sanga cattle ( Bos taurus africanus x Bos indicus ), but also between one or both of these and some other members of

2464-488: Is now northern Syria. Although European cattle are largely descended from the taurine lineage, gene flow from African cattle (partially of indicine origin) contributed substantial genomic components to both southern European cattle breeds and their New World descendants. A study on 134 breeds showed that modern taurine cattle originated from Africa, Asia, North and South America, Australia, and Europe. Some researchers have suggested that African taurine cattle are derived from

2552-601: Is operated by the National Park Service . It is a major tourist attraction in Deer Lodge, Montana, and the tour is free. The National Park Service runs it as a living history ranch, using draft horse teams to hay the land, and blacksmiths on site make horseshoes for the horses. They keep all operations as close to how they would be in the 19th century as possible. Cattle Cattle ( Bos taurus ) are large, domesticated , bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock . They are prominent modern members of

2640-505: Is re-instated, vocalizations rapidly decline; heart rate decreases more rapidly if the returning cattle are familiar to the previously isolated individual. Mirrors have been used to reduce stress in isolated cattle. The average sleep time of a domestic cow is about 4 hours a day. Cattle do have a stay apparatus , but do not sleep standing up; they lie down to sleep deeply. In 2009, the National Institutes of Health and

2728-499: Is some 25–30 years. Beef cattle go to slaughter at around 18 months, and dairy cows at about five years. Cattle are ruminants , meaning their digestive system is highly specialized for processing plant material such as grass rich in cellulose , a tough carbohydrate polymer which many animals cannot digest. They do this in symbiosis with micro-organisms – bacteria , fungi , and protozoa – that possess cellulases , enzymes that split cellulose into its constituent sugars . Among

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2816-409: Is spread by midges . Psoroptic mange is a disabling skin condition caused by mites . Bovine tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium; it causes disease in humans and in wild animals such as deer and badgers. Foot-and-mouth disease is caused by a virus, affects a range of hoofed livestock and is highly contagious. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is a neurodegenerative disease spread by a prion ,

2904-624: Is the number of animals within a specified area. High stocking density can affect cattle health, welfare, productivity, and feeding behaviour. Densely-stocked cattle feed more rapidly and lie down sooner, increasing the risk of teat infection, mastitis, and embryo loss . The stress and negative health impacts induced by high stocking density such as in concentrated animal feeding operations or feedlots , auctions, and transport may be detrimental to cattle welfare. To produce milk from dairy cattle , most calves are separated from their mothers soon after birth and fed milk replacement in order to retain

2992-514: The Big Die-Up by ranchers and across the northern plains, led to the sudden collapse of the cattle industry . By the 1890s, barbed-wire fencing had become standard on the northern plains, railroads had expanded to cover most of the U.S., and meatpacking plants were being built closer to major ranching areas, making long cattle drives from Texas to the railheads in Kansas unnecessary. The age of

3080-452: The Levant and Western Iran , giving rise to the taurine line, and a second in the area that is now Pakistan, resulting in the indicine line. Modern mitochondrial DNA variation indicates the taurine line may have arisen from as few as 80 aurochs tamed in the upper reaches of Mesopotamia near the villages of Çayönü Tepesi in what is now southeastern Turkey, and Dja'de el-Mughara in what

3168-918: The Levant and Western Iran . A separate domestication event occurred in the Indian subcontinent , which gave rise to zebu. There were over 940 million cattle in the world by 2022. Cattle are responsible for around 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions . They were one of the first domesticated animals to have a fully-mapped genome . The term cattle was borrowed from Anglo-Norman catel (replacing native Old English terms like kine , now considered archaic, poetic, or dialectal), itself from Medieval Latin capitale 'principal sum of money, capital', itself derived in turn from Latin caput 'head'. Cattle originally meant movable personal property , especially livestock of any kind, as opposed to real property (the land, which also included wild or small free-roaming animals such as chickens—they were sold as part of

3256-466: The US Department of Agriculture reported having mapped the bovine genome . Cattle have some 22,000 genes, of which 80% are shared with humans; they have about 1000 genes that they share with dogs and rodents, but not with humans. Using this bovine "HapMap", researchers can track the differences between breeds that affect meat and milk yields. Early research focused on Hereford genetic sequences;

3344-523: The cattle business. Grant started using the Deer Lodge Valley in 1857 to graze his cattle during the winter along the banks of the Clark Fork river near Cottonwood creek. In 1859 he decided to permanently locate a ranch and constructed a permanent residence in 1862. He convinced traders to settle around him, forming the town of Cottonwood (later to become Deer Lodge). Johnny was initially successful, but found that when gold miners arrived in

3432-530: The genus Bos – yaks (the dzo or yattle ), banteng , and gaur . Hybrids such as the beefalo breed can even occur between taurine cattle and either species of bison , leading some authors to consider them part of the genus Bos , as well. The hybrid origin of some types may not be obvious – for example, genetic testing of the Dwarf Lulu breed, the only taurine-type cattle in Nepal, found them to be

3520-647: The miniature Zebu are kept as pets . Taurine cattle are widely distributed across Europe and temperate areas of Asia, the Americas, and Australia. Zebus are found mainly in India and tropical areas of Asia, America, and Australia. Sanga cattle are found primarily in sub-Saharan Africa . These types, sometimes classified as separate species or subspecies, are further divided into over 1,000 recognized breeds . Around 10,500 years ago, taurine cattle were domesticated from wild aurochs progenitors in central Anatolia ,

3608-413: The rumen , reticulum , omasum , and abomasum . The rumen is the largest compartment and it harbours the most important parts of the microbiome. The reticulum, the smallest compartment, is known as the "honeycomb". The omasum's main function is to absorb water and nutrients from the digestible feed. The abomasum has a similar function to the human stomach. Cattle regurgitate and re-chew their food in

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3696-525: The 1840s. American ranchers borrowed many other cattle-raising techniques from Mexico. Unlike the Eastern United States, the Western prairies of the 19th century were vast, undeveloped, and uncultivated. The land was also generally much more arid, with scarce, widely separated sources of water. Until the invention of barbed wire in the 1870s, it was more practical to fence the livestock out of developed land, rather than to fence it in. As

3784-594: The 1960s, the National Park Service, under the leadership of Director Conrad Wirth , reenergized the search for historic properties under the auspices of the Historic Sites Act of 1935 and Mission 66 . The original Grant–Kohrs ranch was among several other ranches which were recommended for National Historic Landmark status. Con Warren wanted to sell the Grant–Kohrs portion of his ranch to

3872-427: The 1980s gradually increased rancher liability, first requiring cattle be kept off federal highways, then other developed roads, and in some cases, limited open range grazing only to certain times of the year. In some states, such as Montana, case law on the open range has, for all practical purposes, eliminated it altogether, though statutes may remain on the books. Today, a vehicle has a much higher chance of hitting

3960-540: The Court overturned a 33-year-old precedent that had exempted livestock owners from most liability for wandering stock on roadways (other than certain state and federal highways built with federal funds), holding there was "no duty" to motorists under open range doctrine, in Larson-Murphy v. Steiner', the Court held that there was a relationship between livestock owners and motorists on public roads, allowing motorists

4048-539: The European or "taurine" cattle (including similar types from Africa and Asia); Bos indicus , the Indicine or "zebu" ; and the extinct Bos primigenius , the aurochs . The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and taurine cattle. They were later reclassified as one species, Bos taurus , with the aurochs ( B. t. primigenius ), zebu ( B. t. indicus ), and taurine ( B. t. taurus ) cattle as subspecies. However, this taxonomy

4136-427: The Grant–Kohrs ranch. He originally came to Montana at age 18 in 1864 to help with the butcher shop that served the mining camps. Bielenberg had a lot to do with the horse side of the Grant–Kohrs ranch. He bred what were called the "Big Circle" horses, reputed to be able to cover twenty miles of country in a half a day; a trait useful when gathering cattle spread over a very large area. Together, Bielenberg and Kohrs made

4224-678: The National Park Foundation transferred ownership of its portions of the site to the National Park Service. Initially the site was administered under the jurisdiction of Yellowstone National Park . In 1972 the Grant–Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site was administratively listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Throughout the 1970s, the National Park Service continued to acquire acreage from Conrad Warren, rehabilitate elements of

4312-488: The National Park Service as a historic landmark. In 1970 an agreement to sell the property to the park service was achieved with the proviso that it would be managed as a living ranch by the National Park Service. The original purchase involved 130 acres (0.53 km) of the active Warren Hereford Ranch. In December 1970, the National Park Foundation acquired an additional 1,180 acres (4.8 km) of

4400-455: The US by the early 1930s. Cattle have the largest biomass of any animal species on Earth, at roughly 400 million tonnes, followed closely by Antarctic krill at 379 million tonnes and humans at 373 million tonnes. In 2023, the countries with the most cattle were India with 307.5 million (32.6% of the total), Brazil with 194.4 million, and China with 101.5 million, out of a total of 942.6 million in

4488-544: The United States government acquired Western territories by purchasing, conquest, and treaty, land not yet placed into private ownership was publicly owned and freely available for grazing cattle, though conflicting land-claims and periodic warfare with Native Americans placed some practical limits on grazing areas at various times. Free-roaming range cattle were calved, moved between grazing lands, and driven to market by cowboys . Brands on cattle marked who owned them. Unbranded cattle, known as " mavericks ", could become

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4576-424: The Western rangelands . Indiscriminate fencing of federal lands was commonplace in the 1880s, often without any regard to land ownership or other public needs, such as mail delivery and movement of other kinds of livestock. Various state statutes, as well as vigilantism during the so-called Fence Cutting Wars , tried to enforce or combat fence-building, with varying success. In 1885 U.S. federal legislation outlawed

4664-568: The Western lands became more populated and more developed (through railroads, mining, farming, etc.), open-range laws began to be challenged and were significantly curtailed, though they still exist in certain areas of most Western US states and Canadian provinces. Open-range conditions existed in Western Canada prior to the 1889 amendments of the Dominion Lands Act , which prohibited cattle from grazing on unleased land, though

4752-457: The age, sex, dominance status and reproductive status of the caller, and may indicate estrus in cows and competitive display in bulls. Cows can categorize images as familiar and unfamiliar individuals. Cloned calves from the same donor form subgroups, suggesting that kin discrimination may be a basis of grouping behaviour. Cattle use visual/brain lateralisation when scanning novel and familiar stimuli. They prefer to view novel stimuli with

4840-529: The animals. In Spain, the Running of the bulls faces opposition due to the stress and injuries incurred by the bulls during the event. Open range The Western open-range tradition originated from the early practice of unregulated grazing of livestock in the newly acquired western territories of the United States and Canada. These practices were eventually codified in the laws of many Western US states as they developed written statutes. Over time, as

4928-520: The area, he was at a disadvantage, because he spoke French and the newcomers spoke English . He was taken advantage of in contracts and felt that he could no longer be successful in the area. In August 1866, he sold his ranch to a cattle baron , Conrad Kohrs , for $ 19,200 and returned to Canada . Conrad Kohrs was born on August 5, 1835, in Wewelsfleth , in Holstein province, which was then

5016-676: The available food; foraging velocity decreases and intake rate increases in areas of abundant palatable forage. Cattle avoid grazing areas contaminated by the faeces of other cattle more strongly than they avoid areas contaminated by sheep, but they do not avoid pasture contaminated by rabbits. In cattle, temperament or behavioral disposition can affect productivity, overall health, and reproduction. Five underlying categories of temperament traits have been proposed: shyness–boldness, exploration–avoidance, activity, aggressiveness , and sociability. There are many indicators of emotion in cattle. Holstein–Friesian heifers that had made clear improvements in

5104-479: The bulls weigh 1,000–1,200 kg (2,200–2,600 lb). Before 1790, beef cattle averaged only 160 kg (350 lb) net. Thereafter, weights climbed steadily. Cattle breeds vary widely in size; the tallest and heaviest is the Chianina , where a mature bull may be up to 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) at the shoulder, and may reach 1,280 kg (2,820 lb) in weight. The natural life of domestic cattle

5192-481: The climate warms, increasing the risk of tick-borne diseases. Both beef and milk production are likely to experience declines due to climate change. Cattle health is at once a veterinary issue (for animal welfare and productivity), a public health issue (to limit the spread of disease), and a food safety issue (to ensure meat and dairy products are safe to eat). These concerns are reflected in farming regulations. These rules can become political matters, as when it

5280-500: The cows' milk for human consumption. Animal welfare advocates are critical of this practice , stating that this breaks the natural bond between the mother and her calf. The welfare of veal calves is also a concern. Two sports involving cattle are thought to be cruel by animal welfare groups: rodeos and bullfighting . Such groups oppose rodeo activities including bull riding , calf roping and steer roping , stating that rodeos are unnecessary and cause stress, injury, and death to

5368-404: The enclosure of public land. By 1890 illegal fencing had been mostly removed. In the north, overgrazing stressed the open range, leading to insufficient winter forage for cattle and their subsequent starvation, particularly during the harsh winter of 1886–1887 , when severely overgrazed rangelands combined with unusually cold temperatures killed hundreds of thousands of cattle. This was called

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5456-489: The grazed plants and of animals at different trophic levels in the ecosystem . A well documented consequence of overgrazing is woody plant encroachment in rangelands, which significantly reduces the carrying capacity of the land over time. Cattle husbandry practices including branding , castration , dehorning , ear tagging , nose ringing , restraint, tail docking , the use of veal crates, and cattle prods have raised welfare concerns. Stocking density

5544-697: The land). The word is a variant of chattel (a unit of personal property) and closely related to capital in the economic sense. The word cow came via Anglo-Saxon cū (plural cȳ ), from Common Indo-European gʷōus ( genitive gʷowés ) 'a bovine animal', cf. Persian : gâv , Sanskrit : go- . In older English sources such as the King James Version of the Bible, cattle often means livestock, as opposed to deer , which are wild. Cattle are large artiodactyls , mammals with cloven hooves , meaning that they walk on two toes,

5632-498: The law has sometimes been settled via legal action. In Montana , the Montana Supreme Court in the decision Larson-Murphy v. Steiner , for a short time effectively eliminated some aspects of the open range doctrine altogether, though stating that it still applied in other cases, and required legislative action to update the state's statutes to ameliorate some inconsistent provisions of the decision. In that decision,

5720-402: The left eye (using the right brain hemisphere), but the right eye for familiar stimuli. Individual cattle have also been observed to display different personality traits, such as fearfulness and sociability. Vision is the dominant sense; cattle obtain almost half of their information visually. Being prey animals, cattle evolved to look out for predators almost all around, with eyes that are on

5808-453: The livestock owner is liable for damages of the fenced property. Conversely, the livestock owner is not liable in the absence of the "legal fence." An exception exists for "unruly" animals, usually meaning breeding bulls and stallions, which are supposed to be restricted by the owner. On roadways within an open range area, in a cow-car collision on a roadway, the rancher was at one time not generally liable, but recent law changes beginning in

5896-440: The many bacteria that contribute are Fibrobacter succinogenes , Ruminococcus flavefaciens , and Ruminococcus albus . Cellulolytic fungi include several species of Neocallimastix , while the protozoa include the ciliates Eudiplodinium maggie and Ostracodinium album . If the animal's feed changes over time, the composition of this microbiome changes in response. Cattle have one large stomach with four compartments;

5984-647: The number of agonistic encounters increases with group size. Dominance relationships in semi-wild highland cattle are very firm, with few overt aggressive conflicts: most disputes are settled by agonistic (non-aggressive, competitive) behaviors with no physical contact between opponents, reducing the risk of injury. Dominance status depends on age and sex, with older animals usually dominant to young ones and males dominant to females. Young bulls gain superior dominance status over adult cows when they reach about 2 years of age. Cattle eat mixed diets, but prefer to eat approximately 70% clover and 30% grass. This preference has

6072-582: The open range was over and large cattle-drives were no more. At the same time, independently-owned ranches multiplied all over the developing West. Where there are "open range" laws, people wanting to keep animals off their property must erect a legal fence to keep animals out, as opposed to the "herd district" where an animal's owner must fence it in or otherwise keep it on the person's own property. Most eastern states and jurisdictions in Canada require owners to fence in or herd their livestock. Many states in

6160-651: The practice did not disappear immediately. Open-range management has also been practiced in other areas, including the Caribbean and some Eastern US states, such as South Carolina during the colonial period. The practice was also widespread in Mexico , and some argue that the Mexican tradition may have been the predecessor to open-range practices in the American West, much of which was part of Mexico prior to

6248-438: The price of increasing pH , respiratory alkalosis . To deal with this, cattle are forced to shed bicarbonate through urination , at the expense of rumen buffering. These two pathologies can both cause lameness . Another specific risk is mastitis . This worsens as Calliphora blowflies increase in number with continued warming, spreading mastitis-causing bacteria. Ticks too are likely to increase in temperate zones as

6336-437: The process of chewing the cud , like most ruminants. While feeding, cows swallow their food without chewing; it goes into the rumen for storage. Later, the food is regurgitated to the mouth, a mouthful at a time, where the cud is chewed by the molars, grinding down the coarse vegetation to small particles. The cud is then swallowed again and further digested by the micro-organisms in the cow's stomach. The gestation period for

6424-483: The process. Copulation lasts several seconds and consists of a single pelvic thrust . Cows seek secluded areas for calving. Semi-wild Highland cattle heifers first give birth at 2 or 3 years of age, and the timing of birth is synchronized with increases in natural food quality. Average calving interval is 391 days, and calving mortality within the first year of life is 5%. Beef calves suckle an average of 5 times per day, spending some 46 minutes suckling. There

6512-429: The property of anyone able to capture and brand them. The invention of barbed wire in the 1870s made it easier to confine cattle to designated areas, which helped to prevent overgrazing of the range, and made fencing huge expanses cheaper than hiring cowboys to handle cattle. In Texas and surrounding areas, rapid population growth required ranchers to fence off their lands. This initially brought considerable drama to

6600-550: The ranch allowing the National Park Service to take administrative control of the site. In August 1972, the U.S. Congress authorized the establishment of Grant–Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site to provide an understanding of the frontier cattle era of the Nation’s history, to preserve the Grant–Kohrs Ranch, and to interpret the nationally significant values thereof for the benefit and inspiration of future generations. In 1972

6688-410: The ranch and provide improvements for visitation to include a visitor center, interpretive trails and access for the public. In 1974 the site became an independently operating unit of the National Park Service with its own superintendent, historian and budget. A formal dedication ceremony was held on July 17, 1977, and visitors were admitted to the new site., The Grant–Kohrs National Historic Site today

6776-482: The result of crossing taurines domesticated elsewhere with local aurochs, but they are genetically distinct; some authors name them as a separate subspecies, Bos taurus africanus . The only pure African taurine breeds remaining are the N'Dama , Kuri and some varieties of the West African Shorthorn. Feral cattle are those that have been allowed to go wild. Populations exist in many parts of

6864-495: The sides of their head rather than the front. This gives them a field of view of 330°, but limits binocular vision (and therefore stereopsis ) to some 30° to 50°, compared to 140° in humans. They are dichromatic , like most mammals. Cattle avoid bitter-tasting foods, selecting sweet foods for energy. Their sensitivity to sour-tasting foods helps them to maintain optimal ruminal pH . They seek out salty foods by taste and smell to maintain their electrolyte balance. Their hearing

6952-588: The subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus Bos . Mature female cattle are called cows and mature male cattle are bulls . Young female cattle are called heifers , young male cattle are oxen or bullocks , and castrated male cattle are known as steers . Cattle are commonly raised for meat , for dairy products , and for leather . As draft animals , they pull carts and farm implements . In India , cattle are sacred animals within Hinduism, and may not be killed. Small breeds such as

7040-416: The third and fourth digits. Like all bovid species, they can have horns, which are unbranched and are not shed annually. Coloration varies with breed; common colors are black, white, and red/brown, and some breeds are spotted or have mixed colors. 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

7128-419: The tongue; in one study observing 750-kilogram (1,650 lb) steers, bite area reached a maximum of approximately 170 cm (30 sq in). Bite depth increases with the height of the plants. By adjusting their behavior, cattle obtain heavier bites in swards that are tall and sparse compared with short, dense swards of equal mass/area. Cattle adjust other aspects of their grazing behavior in relation to

7216-464: The trading business. However, in the 1840s the fur trade was dying out, so Johnny Grant and his brother James turned to trading with emigrants traveling west along the Oregon Trail . He made a considerable profit by trading travelers one healthy cow or horse for two trail-wearied ones. He then fed and rested the tired animals and the following season traded them again. This is how he got into

7304-421: The west, e.g. Texas, are at least nominally still open-range states. In modern times, free roaming cattle can be a nuisance and danger in developed areas. Most western states, even those that are nominally open at the state level, now limit open range to certain areas. Under open range law today, if livestock break through a "legal fence" (defined by law in terms of height, materials, post spacing, etc.), then

7392-721: The world, sometimes on small islands. Some, such as Amsterdam Island cattle , Chillingham cattle , and Aleutian wild cattle have become sufficiently distinct to be described as breeds. Cattle are often raised by allowing herds to graze on the grasses of large tracts of rangeland . Raising cattle extensively in this manner allows the use of land that might be unsuitable for growing crops. The most common interactions with cattle involve daily feeding , cleaning and milking . Many routine husbandry practices involve ear tagging , dehorning , loading, medical operations , artificial insemination , vaccinations and hoof care, as well as training for agricultural shows and preparations. Around

7480-569: The world, Fulani husbandry rests on behavioural techniques, whereas in Europe, cattle are controlled primarily by physical means, such as fences . Breeders use cattle husbandry to reduce tuberculosis susceptibility by selective breeding and maintaining herd health to avoid concurrent disease. In the United States, many cattle are raised intensively, kept in concentrated animal feeding operations , meaning there are at least 700 mature dairy cows or at least 1000 other cattle stabled or confined in

7568-406: The world. Cattle are kept on farms to produce meat, milk, and leather, and sometimes to pull carts or farm implements. 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. About

7656-507: Was proposed in the UK in 2011 that milk from tuberculosis -infected cattle should be allowed to enter the food chain. Cattle disease attracted attention in the 1980s and 1990s when bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) broke out in the United Kingdom . BSE can cross into humans as the deadly variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease ; 178 people in the UK had died from it by 2010. The gut flora of cattle produce methane ,

7744-415: Was the world's largest producer of cattle hides. Cattle hides account for around 65% of the world's leather production. Cattle are subject to pests including arthropod parasites such as ticks (which can in turn transmit diseases caused by bacteria and protozoa), and diseases caused by pathogens including bacteria and viruses . Some viral diseases are spread by insects - i.e. bluetongue disease

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