Talk:Cattle/Archive 2

message: 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)
thread_title: Volume of rumen and cow

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

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  History of cattle 

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

message: 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)
thread_title:  Judging of Cattle 

message: 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)
thread_title: Other uses

message: 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)
thread_title:  Images 

message: I was cobing the article history because I was bored, and I found this comedic gem.  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)
replies: text: I suppose we could mention in the article that fat people are compared to cows, maybe using this as reference--190.39.204.66 02:18, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: PURE GENIUS!

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)

text: New page created! Cattle Judging CattleGirl 10:38, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cattle judging 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
replies: text: I'm pretty sure that dairy cow meat is turned into ground beef. ike9898 21:38, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Any any animal product that'll fit into a grinder is turned into sausages - Peripitus (Talk) 09:24, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  lifespan 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Cattle genders 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  POV in Ox section? 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Cows in fiction 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Cattle husbandry section expansion 

message: 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)
replies: text: They aren't blue. Ian 19:35, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Blue cattle

message: 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)
thread_title:  Cow Maturity 

message: Why cows hate winter.
:lmao. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Thai H. Nguyen (talk • contribs) 15:51, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Winter

message: Please change "thier milk" to "their milk" in the section on Hindu traditions. -- 212.63.43.180 18:25, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Done. Thai H. Nguyen 15:48, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Typo: "thier milk" 

message: I think that there should be a diagram of the insides of a cow. Thai H. Nguyen 15:46, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Anatomy 

message: I've got a cow sound we may want to add to the article Secretlondon 15:12, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Secretlondon, this page is only semiprotected. I'm sure you can edit it. — Carl (CBM · talk) 12:56, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Sound