The 1977 column’s title was “How many cows are slaughtered each year to make McDonald’s hamburgers?” The short (and accurate) answer is . . . . (ta da!) ==> NONE!!
Almost all beef comes from steers (castrated male cattle). Most male cattle are castrated and raised for beef (males are bigger and thus produce more meat). Most female cattle are raised for dairy.
Joe
Edited to provide link to Cecil’s column – CKDH
And what do you suppose happens to a milker, when she grows to old to milk? She gets slaughtered, ground up, and et, quite possibly at a McDonald’s.
Yep. I’m, with Chroons here, An older, or no longer prime milker heifer, what do you think they are going to do with it? But the real problem is that is McDonaldd thiik this is somehow a good advertising slogan, well, then, they have researched what the public will go for. and are probably right.
Right only in the marketing sense, of course.
Aaaaaaaarrrggghhh
Aaaaakkkkk - I shall go on my knees to do penance for that collection of typos,
My excuse = very late here.
<Celyn goes off to snooze>
From 1996. It’s not just the elderly cows–it’s also the Problem Cows, too, a process known as “culling”.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ceah/cahm/Dairy_Cattle/d96culltxt.htm
In the industry, these cows are known as “dairy beef”.
Plus you bring up the debate over what exactly do we call the type of animal that has sexes of bull and heifer.
DDG is correct and has good links. It seems worth adding that the cull rate in modern confinement dairy operations is quite high. The girls only work a few years before they are too old to produce at the level required to stay in a milking string. In some ways they are like professional athletes and only the very best have more than a few years at the pro level.
Irishman - Male cattle with balls are bulls. Male cattle without balls are steers. Young female cattle are heifers. Typically, this means they have never “freshened”, had a calf and given milk, but the term is also applied generally to young females with modifiers: first calf heifer, second calf heifer. Mature females are cows.
There are also male cattle that still have balls but have had their dicks altered so that they can’t mount a female. They are called Gomer bulls. They are used to identify hot cows ready to breed by artificial insemination. They pay just as close attention to cows as intact bulls but can’t impregnate them.
There are also “proud cut” steers. These are steers that were incorrectly neutered, usually with an undescended testicle that has not been removed. They are seldom fertile but still have hormones that make them behave more like intact bulls.
Bulls are bullies. They are hard to live with, pick on each other and ‘cow’ everyone they can. When there are hot cows around they are single minded to the point that they won’t even eat and are sometimes so weakened at the end of the breeding season that they never recover. A healthy bull can reliably service about 25 cows in the 45 day breeding window required in commercial herds. This works out to about 2 cows a day but they mount each cow several times. They spend all day, every day, mounting cows over and over and over again. It is complicated by the fact that cows are only fertile for a short period so it does no good to mount them when they are not hot. Bulls detect heat by smell and spend a lot of time tagging along after cows sniffing tail. Cows also seek out bulls when they are in the mood.
Only the best male cattle ever breed. In natural conditions the better bulls kill, maim or simply exclude lesser males. Cows also select dominant bulls. Bulls don’t last long as breeders and are soon knocked off by younger bulls not yet worn out by breeding. In commercial herds the extra males are castrated and raised in peace for meat. The best bulls are milked for sperm and never mount cows. This gives them a longer service life since they are less likely to hurt themselves - often hip injuries - mounting cows. These prize bulls are well fed too.
In the past some few steers were kept as lead steers. They keep growing as they age and were often twice the size of young yet mature market steers. Lead steers kept the peace, worked point on trails, knew where the water holes were and commanded the undivided attention of the smaller and younger steers. They don’t have the aggressiveness of bulls and can bond with humans, become pets of sorts. Cows do this too. Bulls may seem domesticated but can turn on you at any time. There are a lot of dead dairy men that could testify to this if they could talk.
Thanks for a lot of detailed but irrelevant information. The question is how to refer to a single cattle beast, regardless of gender. Notice the circuitous wording required to identify the concept. We have a pig, which is either a sow or a boar. We have deer, which are either bucks or does. We have sheep - rams or ewes. So what is the beast that’s a bull or a cow?
I submit that linguistic shift has already occurred, and most people refer to the generic animal as a cow, regardless of sex.
You can see what Cecil had to say about it in this column. It also addresses LexNet’s OP about using cows vs. steers in Mickey D’s burgers.
Thanks, Kat, I knew there was a column but couldn’t find it.