# What is an ox? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 30, 2022, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-ox/972518 "2022-09-30T20:51:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2022, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-ox/972518/81 "2022-10-03T18:58:42Z")
1836… > **[Travis Letter](https://www.thealamo.org/remember/battle-and-revolution/travis-letter)** > > History of the Alamo Historic SiteThe Alamo historic site is the genuine article... a real place where history happened and heroes were… ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2022, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-ox/972518/82 "2022-10-03T19:49:17Z")
I’ve branded and fixed well over a thousand head of cattle. We used a sharp pocket knife to cut off a quarter sized hunk of scrotum and worked the nuts out. Yearlings we ran through a squeeze shoot, but the recent years calves could be done with a healing horse and just kneeling on them. Depending on the operation you would also brand them, ear tag, dehorn, vaccinate for bovine respiratory virus, and (rarely) inject growth hormone. In my area the only animals that were castrated with bands were sheep. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2022, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-ox/972518/83 "2022-10-03T19:58:19Z")
I readily defer to your far greater experience. All I know is one video I saw on a phone, and a couple of discussions w/ 1 guy on the golf course. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2022, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-ox/972518/84 "2022-10-03T20:32:27Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > It’s a reference to Oregon Trail. Those are the prices in version 5, the one I played, and the one you can now download from a game site to play on Win10 & 11. You could choose among oxen, horses and mules. Huh. I didn’t know they’d made that many versions. I did check for version 2, which I knew about, but not that far. These days, the big push seems to going retro and going back to the original. There was even a portable version made. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-ox/972518/85 "2022-10-04T11:19:05Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I had an essay question on a college exam about cattle. I tried to use as many different words for the animal as i could think of. Cattle, bovine, cow, calf, heifer, bull, steer, ox, kine, veal, beef, maybe some others. Here’s one I ran across yesterday - freemartin. If a cow has fraternal twins of different sexes, the female is a freemartin - a sterile genetic chimera. Now work THAT into a conversation today! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-ox/972518/86 "2022-10-04T15:34:07Z")
Wow. And I thought it was just something Aldous Huxley invented for _Brave New World_. Mind blown. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-ox/972518/87 "2022-10-04T19:14:37Z")
Reading a very interesting (to me) book on heredity, [She Has Her Mother’s Laugh.](https://www.amazon.com/She-Has-Her-Mothers-Laugh/dp/1101984597). The last 3 chapters have been on lyonization (a woman’s cells shutting off one or the other X chromosome), mosaicism, and chimeras. I find this fascinating. I mean, you really want be able to entertain your friends with descriptions of how unusual cows’ uteruses are, don’t you? 😉 For bonus points, it also had chapters describing Paabo’s (recent Nobel laureate) work. My kid and her husband both have advanced microbiology degrees. I read this stuff, not only b/c I find it interesting, but also to have the faintest idea of what their jobs entail. Most often, I get it wrong! ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-ox/972518/88 "2022-10-13T23:16:14Z")
I learned all that reading Ivanhoe! ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-ox/972518/89 "2022-10-13T23:18:34Z")
I’d guess people who don’t know what a heeling horse does will be even more confused by what a healing horse does … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-ox/972518.md?page=4)