“The cow is of the bovine ilk,
One end is moo, the other milk.”
(Nash?)
[QUOTE}Let’s say you’re driving through farm country and you see a bunch of cattle. You might exclaim to your spouse, “Oh look, honey, cows!” Well, in all likelihood, the herd you see is mostly or completely cows, since there are usually a lot less bulls in a herd than cows, and they don’t usually hang out together. Maybe that’s why we refer to all of them as female - because the ones we usually see, are.[/QUOTE]
Not round my neck of the woods, squire. They’re equally likely to be bullocks - that is, neutered bulls. The reasons are simple
[ul][li]Bullocks are a lot easier to handle than bulls[/li][li]Dairy farming and meat farming are both fairly prevalent round us, so the cows are gerally used for milk[/li][li]There’s a great distaste for veal in this country[/li][li]Cows give birth to an equal number of male and female calves (or do they? Anyone got any studies on this?)[/ul][/li]
Bullocks are odd creatures actually - intensely curious, for starters. I’ve had an entire fieldful follow me along a fence for five minutes, staring at my dog. (If you’ll forgive a slight anthropomorphication - “Hey lads! There’s a wolf on a bit of string over here!”)
Luther Blisset is Everyman.
So Smile.
And forgive my messing up the quotes please, this is my first attempt at UBB.
Luther Blisset is Everyman.
So Smile.
Yep, that was good old Ogden.
As well as this gem…
Reflections on Ice-Breaking
Candy
Is dandy
But liquor
Is quicker
Thanks to Smile for the new word-of-the-day:
** Anthropomorphication **
Now if I can just figure out how to use it in a sentence… 
Any similarities between your reality and mine are purely coincidental.
It’s worse than you thought, Katt. The word is actually “anthropomorphization”.
from Merriam-Webster, 1997:
**
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen
Myself, I prefer the term “microheifer,” a la PUNdit.
Of course, those who, on occasion, call me “kleine Kuh” have also been known to register special favor.
“Good grief!” cried Whistler as he saw his mother scrubbing the floor on her hands and knees. “Are you off your rocker?”
Waaall, round OUR neck of the woods, I ain’t never seed no cows I’d zactly call CLEAN, and you shore dew spell funny …
<rimshot>