# Talk:Cattle

Young male cattle are called bull calves, once they are castrated they are called steers for the first 12 months then they are bullocks or oxen. 58.179.75.144 (talk) 20:36, 11 September 2024 (UTC)

Not done: leaving aside that Wikipedia isn't a dictionary, we can't insert text without citing a reliable source; nor is it obvious where this might go in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chiswick Chap (talk • contribs) 20:43, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
The sentence "Young female cattle are called heifers, young male cattle are oxen or bullocks, and castrated male cattle are known as steers." is arguably misleading (or plain wrong).
Refering to any intact (not castrated) young bull as an "ox"  needs a citation/reliable source, in the first place.
cf. Bull 185.11.136.59 (talk) 08:25, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

It may not be correct that "Cattle have the largest biomass of any animal species on Earth, at roughly 400 million tonnes." According to the graphic at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology)#/media/File:Terrestrial_biomass.svg, all livestock (including pigs, goats, horses, and mules as well as cattle) only account for 100 million tonnes of biomass. The graphic at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology)#/media/File:Distribution-of-earths-mammals.png seems to indicate cattle only account for 61 million tonnes of biomass. Even the original article cited as evidence for the figure of 400 million tonnes on the wikipedia page seems to say that all livestock (again including more than just cattle) make up only 100 million tonnes of biomass. See Fig. 1 and Table 1 at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6016768/. 
Clearly, cattle have the largest biomass of any mammal species. It is likely true that Cattle have the largest biomass of any terrestrial vertebrate species. It's possibly true that they have the largest biomass of any terrestrial animal species, but this needs to be checked against the biomass of ant and termite species. It's also possibly true that they have the largest biomass of any vertebrate species, but this needs to be checked against the biomass of various fish species.
I would recommend editing the 1st sentence of the second paragraph under population to say:
Cattle have the largest biomass of any mammal species on Earth, at roughly 61 million tonnes, followed closely by humans at 60 million tonnes.
I am not an expert on biology or biomass estimates, so there may be some nuance I'm missing, like the difference between million tonnes of carbon and million tonnes of biomass. Aelwyn1964 (talk) 17:00, 23 June 2025 (UTC)

Thanks. Yes, there is a major difference between a tonne of carbon and a tonne of biomass. For example, for a carbohydrate like sugar with the general formula CH2O, carbon makes up about 12/30 of the mass, so every tonne of carbon would mean 2.5 tonnes of sugar. An cow is made up of around 70% water, so carbon is a far smaller fraction of the animal's total mass. Chiswick Chap (talk) 19:17, 23 June 2025 (UTC)

This article is incredibly limited in its description of a cow's anatomy. While the horse article links to other extensive articles such as Equine anatomy, and the Dog article links to Canine anatomy, there is no equivalent Bovine anatomy article. The article is missing information that describes the major organs of the cow, such as the heart, brain, or lungs. Lungs are not mentioned anywhere in the article, while the heart and brain are only briefly mentioned in the context of being eaten, and not in relation to their function while alive inside a cow. While the digestive system is described, the respiratory system, the circulatory system, and the nervous system are not mentioned. The section on cognition doesn't even mention the brain! I came here after wanting to find a place in this article to provide a See Also for Blood_type_(non-human)#Bovid_blood_groups, but there's no mention of blood or the circulatory system at all. I am not a biologist or a veterinarian, so my knowledge is limited in this field. But based on what's present in the articles of other domesticated animals, this article is missing information and should give more information. JasonMacker (talk) 15:48, 20 September 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for your view. However, all mammals have those organs, so it is probably a mistake for the horse and dog articles to include redundant descriptions of them: the value of an encyclopedia consists in large part in having a hierarchy of articles so as to avoid needless overlaps. This is also, as you indicate with your mention of Equine anatomy, a high-level overview or introduction to a (very) large subject. The function of an introductory article of this kind is precisely not to attempt to say everything, but to provide a concise summary with many links to other articles on more specialised topics. Chiswick Chap (talk) 16:01, 20 September 2025 (UTC)

"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."
.. young male are certainly not oxen ! JoeAleman (talk) 19:27, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

Fixed, looks as if someone had 'corrected' it. Chiswick Chap (talk) 22:21, 27 September 2025 (UTC)