CATTLE

CATTLE arrived in Florida before 1600 with early Spanish settlers. A shipment in 1611 initiated cattle raising in Virginia; the Pilgrims began with a few of the Devonshire breed in 1624. Black and white Dutch cattle were brought to New Amsterdam in 1625. John Mason imported large yellow cattle from Denmark into New Hampshire in 1633. Although losses of cattle during the ocean voyages were heavy, they increased rapidly in all the colonies and soon were exported to the West Indies, both live and as salted barreled beef.

Interest in improved livestock, based upon English efforts, came at the close of the American Revolution when Bakewell, or improved longhorn cattle, were imported, followed by shorthorns, sometimes called Durhams, and Devons. Henry Clay first imported Herefords in 1817. Substantial numbers of Aberdeen Angus did not reach the United States from Scotland until after the Civil War. By the 1880s, some of the shorthorns were being developed as dairy stock. By the 1860s other dairy breeds had been established—the Holstein-Friesian breed, based upon stock from Holland, and the Brown Swiss. Even earlier, Ayrshires, Jerseys, and Guernseys were raised as dairy cattle.

Cattle growers in the Northeast and across the Midwest relied on selective breeding, fencing, and haymaking, as well as built structures. Dairying began in New York State and spread across the northern regions of the country. Cheese production increased in the North during the Civil War. Butter making was a substantial source of income for many rural households. Cattle-raising techniques in the southern regions included open grazing, the use of salt and cow pens to manage herds, as well as dogs and whips to control animals. Southern practices included droving, branding, and roundups early in American history.

During the Civil War, longhorn cattle, descendants of Spanish stock, grew up unchecked on the Texas plains. After other attempts to market these cattle failed, Joseph G. McCoy made arrangements to ship them from the railhead at Abilene, Kansas, and in 1867 the long drives from Texas to the railheads began. Midwestern farms diversified by fattening trailed animals on corn before shipping to market, leading to the feedlot industry. In 1868 iced rail cars were adopted, allowing fresh beef, rather than live animals, to be shipped to market. Chicago became a center for the meatpacking industry.

Overgrazing, disastrous weather, and settlement by homesteaders brought the range cattle industry to an end after 1887. The invention of barbed wire by Joseph Glidden in the 1870s made fencing the treeless plains possible, ending free-ranging droving of cattle. Fencing allowed selective breeding and also minimized infection from tick fever by limiting the mobility of cattle.

While dairy breeds did not change, productivity per cow increased greatly. Dairy technology improved, and the areas of supply were extended. Homogenization, controls of butterfat percentage, and drying changed traditional milk production and consumption. The industry also became subject to high standards of sanitation.

By the 1980s, hormones and antibiotics were used to boost production of meat and milk while cutting costs to the producer. By 1998, 90 percent of all beef cattle were given hormone implants, boosting weight and cutting expenses by 7 percent. In the 1990s, mad cow disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, was identified in Britain. Related to a human disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, it was believed to be caused by feeding infected rendered animal products to cattle. Worldwide attention focused on cattle feeding and health. In 2001, foot-and-mouth disease swept through herds in many countries. Neither disease appeared in U.S. cattle.

Artificial insemination technology grew significantly. Eggs from prize cows were harvested and then fertilized in the laboratory, and the frozen embryos were implanted in other cows or exported to cattle-growing markets around the world. In 1998 the first cloned calf was created in Japan; by 2001, researchers at the University of Georgia had reproduced eight cloned calves. Cattle by-products from meat slaughter were significant in the pharmaceutical and health care industry. In 2001, artificial human blood was experimentally synthesized from cattle blood.

Grazing on public lands in the West was criticized in the 1980s, focusing attention on federal government–administered leases. At the same time, holistic grazing techniques grew in popularity, resulting from Allan Savory's work to renew desertified pastures through planned intensive grazing.

In 1998, slaughter cattle weighed 20 pounds more (with an average total of 1,194 pounds) than the year before; smaller numbers of cattle were going to market, but the meat yield was higher. The number of beef cattle slaughtered dropped 12 percent between 1998 and 2000. Per capita beef consumption dropped between 1980 and 2000 by 7 pounds, to 69.5 pounds per person, but began rising in 1998–1999. Total retail beef consumption rose from $40.7 billion in 1980 to $58.6 billion in 2000. In 1999, average milk production per dairy cow was 17,771 pounds per year; the total milk production was 163 billion pounds.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carlson, Laurie Winn. Cattle: An Informal Social History. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2001.

Jordan, Terry G. North American Cattle-Ranching Frontiers: Origins, Diffusion, and Differentiation. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993.

Laurie WinnCarlson

Wayne D.Rasmussen

See alsoCowboys ; Dairy Industry ; Livestock Industry ; Meatpacking .

cattle have been farmed in Ireland since the neolithic period. Archaeologists, using the evidence of bone remains, identify several distinct types of early cattle, some possibly produced by selective breeding. Larger types of cattle may have been introduced to Ireland by Vikings, Anglo‐Normans, and 17th‐century settlers, but it was not until the later 18th century that systematic attempts to create breeds with fixed characteristics became widespread. The Kerry was recognized as a distinctive type by this period, but it was during the late 19th century that its characteristics became standardized to produce a hardy ‘poor man's’ cow, kept for both milk and meat. An Irish type of longhorn was also identified, particularly in midland counties, and the English agricultural improver Robert Bakewell may have used some of these in developing his famous breed. Other types of cattle, such as the Dexter and Irish Moil, were ascribed ancient antecedents, but were not developed as pedigree breeds until the early 20th century.

By the early historic period, law tracts and literature clearly show the central importance of cattle in determining social status within Irish society. Large‐scale cattle farming is suggested by early medieval texts, and by the late 18th century herds of over 1,000 cattle were recorded in rich grazing lands in Cos. Tipperary and Limerick. These have remained major centres of production ever since. At the other end of the farming scale, the ownership of a cow was also crucial, providing both manure, essential for the successful cultivation of potatoes on marginal land, and milk, which along with potatoes could provide a healthy if monotonous diet. In these areas, the management of cattle often involved a system of transhumance, known as booleying, when animals were moved to common hill grazing during summer.

Between 1850 and 1900 there was a 60 per cent increase in cattle numbers in Ireland, mostly of imported breeds such as Shorthorns, which by 1900 had become the most common cattle breed throughout northern Europe. The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland succeeded in establishing a national Dairy Shorthorn herd, and these remained dominant until the 1930s, although encouragement was also given for the purchase of other breeds, including Herefords, Aberdeen Angus, and Galloways. Friesian cattle became common in dairying districts during the 1950s, while in more recent decades breeds such as the Charolais and Polled Hereford have typified a movement towards greater diversity of breeds, mostly imported from mainland Europe.

Bibliography

Kelly, Fergus , Early Irish Law (1988)
Lucas, A. T. , Cattle in Ancient Ireland (1987)
Wallace, R. , Farm Livestock of Great Britain (1907)

Jonathan Bell

cattle name for the ruminant mammals of the genus Bos, and particularly those of the domesticated species, Bos taurus and B. indica. The term oxen, broadly used, refers also to closely related animals, such as the buffalo and the bison . Narrowly used, ox refers to a mature castrated male used for draft purposes. In referring to domestic cattle a grown male is a bull, a grown female a cow, an infant a calf, and an animal between one and two years old a yearling. A female that has not given birth is a heifer; a castrated male is a steer.

Most cattle have unbranched horns consisting of a horny layer surrounding a bone extension of the skull; these horns, unlike those of deer, are not shed. Some cattle are naturally hornless. Western, or European, domestic cattle ( Bos taurus ) are thought to be descended mainly from the aurochs, a large European wild ox domesticated during the Stone Age, extinct since 1627. A smaller species, the Celtic shorthorn, was the most important domestic ox of the Stone Age and may also be involved in the ancestry of B. taurus. The zebu , or Indian ox, B. indica, is the humped domestic species of Asia and Africa. Several B. indica breeds have been developed in the United States into the Brahman breed. The yak , B. grunniens, and other cattle species, wild and domestic, exist in Asia. Domestic cattle were first brought to the Western Hemisphere by Columbus on his second voyage.

In various societies throughout history wealth has been measured in terms of cattle— cattle is related to capital and chattel, and pecuniary is derived from pecus [Lat.,=cattle]. Breeding for improvement of beef and dairy qualities, practiced by the Romans, was established on scientific principles in the middle of the 18th cent. by English livestock breeder Robert Bakewell (see animal husbandry ; breeding ). Important beef breeds include Angus , Hereford , Simmental, Charolais, Limousin, Gelbvieh, Brahman, and Shorthorn . Important crossbreeds include Brangus (Brahman x Angus) and Santa Gertrudis (Shorthorn x Brahman). Major dairy breeds include Holstein-Friesian , Jersey , Guernsey , Brown Swiss , Ayrshire , and Milking Shorthorn . The importance of dual-purpose breeds has declined.

Cattle are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla, family Bovidae. See also beef ; dairying .

Bibliography: See publications of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; A. L. Neumann and K. S. Lusby, Beef Cattle (8th ed. 1986); V. Porter, Cattle (1992).

cattle Large, ruminant mammals of the family Bovidae, including all the varieties of modern domestic cattle (Bos taurus), the brahman (Bos indicus) and hybrids of these two. The family also includes the yak, the wild gaur, the wild banteng and the kouprey. Different terms are used to indicate the sex and age of domestic cattle. The male is born as a bull calf and becomes a bull if left intact; if castrated, it becomes a steer, bullock or ox if used as a draught animal. The female is a heifer calf, growing to become a heifer and, after calving, a cow. In Hinduism, the cow is sacred. Horns, sometimes appearing only on the male, are permanent, hollow and unbranched. Domestic cattle are raised for meat, milk and other dairy products. Leather, glue, gelatin and fertilizer are made from the carcass.

Cattle

bovine animals collectively; other live animals, as fowl, bees, etc.; slaves; people considered to be rubbish or trash; the mob; lazy servants—Slang Dictionary, 1874.

cattle See PECORA; BOVIDAE.

cattle. See BULL; COW.

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