Livestock 

Cattle: When people talk about cattle, they mean cows.  There are so many different types of breeds, but they mainly work into two types: 

    Dairy Cattle:  Dairy cows give lots of milk. 

    Beef Cattle: Beef cattle have good meat for us to eat.

Are all cattle cows? No, only the females, the mothers, are cows. The males, the fathers, are called bulls.  Other males are called steers.  Small babies are called calves (calf) and bigger calves are called yearlings. A female who has never had a calf is called a heifer.

Dairy Cattle:

Some cows are famous because they give so much milk or because they give very rich milk.  The two most famous Dairy Cows are:

    Holstein:  

Holstein cows give lots of milk, so farmers raise them to sell milk to dairies.  A dairy takes the milk from the farmer, pasteurizes, homogenizes, and packages it, and sells the milk to  the stores. That's where we buy it.  Dairy farmers have to milk these cows twice every day - once in the early morning, and once in the early evening.   They can never miss a day! 

    Jersey:

Jersey cows give very rich milk.  That means the milk has a lot of cream in it.   Have you ever heard of "Jersey Milk Chocolate Bars"?  Icecream and chocolate bars have a lot of rich milk in them.

Milk gives us other food products too:  cheese, sour cream, whipped cream, yogurt, cream cheese, cheese strings, cottage cheese, puddings, and milkshakes.  Milk is important to help build strong teeth and bones!

Do brown cows give chocolate milk? No, all cows give white milk. The chocolate flavor comes from cocoa, or the cacao bean, which is grown in a different part of the world.

Beef Cattle:

Beef cattle are raised for the excellent meat they provide.  We all love hamburgers, don't we?  They are made of beef!   So are steaks, roasts, short ribs, and prime rib are all beef.  You often see bumper stickers on our vehicles that say "I love Alberta beef!"  Barbeques fire up all year round so we can enjoy our Alberta beef.

What do cattle eat? They love grass, hay, and grain. They use the hard ridge on their upper gum, tongue, and bottom teeth to tear the grass and hay. 

Because cattle need to eat such a huge amount every day, it is very hard to digest the food.  Each cow has 4 stomachs to help process their food.   One stomach lets them "burp" up some of the grass to chew on it later.   This is called "chewing the cud".

Don't cattle eat straw? Only if they are starving.   Straw is the stalk of the grain and is just a hollow tube.  There is not much nutrition.  Hay is full of vitamins and minerals that cattle need. Farmers use straw for cattle to lie on.  It helps keep the cows clean and warm.

Why do some bulls have a ring through the nose? Bulls can be very dangerous because they are highly unpredictable.  People do not know what a bull will do next.  A bull's nose is very sensitive and if a rope is tied to a ring in the nose, the bull will follow fairly easily.

Why don't all bulls have horns?

A polled bull, or polled cow, has no horns. As soon as a calf starts to grow horn buds, the farmer will treat the buds to stop growing.  Or, a farmer may choose to "dehorn" particular cattle if they have a bad attitude towards humans.  It is far more painful for adults to lose their horns than for calves.

Why do some cows walk in a line?

Cows like to have company, to be part of a herd.  When they move from the barn to a pasture, or back to the barn they usually follow one leader - the "boss" of the herd.   They travel by single file, one-by-one, using the same trail which gets worn down from so many hoof-prints.  We call a trail like this a cow-path. Cows often come when the farmer calls them, "k-boss, k-boss."

Here are two diagrams that show the different parts of cattle for you to learn the proper names.

Some farmers take their cattle to the "Fair" to be judged in competitions.  These bulls are waiting for their turn in the show ring.

There are many breeds of cattle as you can see by the pictures below.  Go to this web site to find out the names of these and other cattle breeds.  It is an excellent site!

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle

Ranching:

Ranching is a special type of farming.  Farmers usually grow grains for feed and have their cattle fenced in to care for them easily.  But ranchers have large properties where cattle are free to graze and wander to feed from the natural grasses and grains. 

Because their cattle are so spread out, the ranchers need to be able to ride across the land to find them when they need care. The term cowboy came from the men who rode horses over the range caring for the cows. Cowboys needed special skills to be out on the range in order to gather the herds, train new horses, and brand the calves to identify them.   Because these skills are so thrilling to watch, rodeos and stampedes originated.   The cowboys compete in these very dangerous sports for chances to win prize money and recognition. 

Stampedes and rodeos are held all over Alberta.  The Calgary Stampede is famous all over the world.  But small towns also host stampedes and are famous as well.  Bruce, Alberta hosts one of the best and oldest stampedes in the province every summer.  Edmonton is host to the Canadian Finals Rodeo every November.

Albertans love watching these terrifying and thrilling feats - bareback riding, saddle-bronc riding, and the most spectacular of all, the bull riding event!