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Cow

Cow is the vernacular name given to the domestic female mammal of the Bos Taurus species, a ruminant belonging to the bovine family. They usually carry two horns on the forehead. The male individuals are called bulls and the youngest ones, calves. A heifer or a young cow, also called “taure” in Quebec or in the “Poitou”, is a cow which is not calved. The current bovines (including zebu) descend from various subspecies of aurochs and are raised to produce, milk, meat or raised as draught animals. In India, the cow is a sacred animal. The word “vache” (cow) comes from the latin word “vacca” that has the same meaning.

Description
The average weight of an adult cow varies from 500 to 900 kg depending on the race. It is shorter than a bull.

Cattle breeding
While bulls are mainly intended to butchery and rarely to reproduction, cows are usually destined to assure the renewal of the herd or the milk production. The cow is raised either for its milk (dairy cow breeds), for meat’s production (meat producing breed or suckler-cows) or for both (mixed breeds). Like all mammals, a cow can only give milk from the moment it calved. Before having had her first calve, the young female is called heifer. Dairy cows near the end of their lives are normally put on fattening and sent to the slaughterhouse (reformed cows). In France they provide the majority of what is commercialized under the denomination beef (80% in 2013). France counted 18,9 million cows in 2006 and 18,7 million cows in France in 2011. 35% of the livestock (all cows confounded) live the center of France. 39% of the same livestock is in Bretagne, Pays de la Loire and former Basse-Normandie.

The prim’holstein is the most widespread dairy bleed in France.

From 1985 to 2011, the number of suckler-cows increased, from 3 339 000 to 4 108 000 (i.e. +23% in 26 years).

At the same time the number of dairy cows went from 6 538 000 to 3 678 000 (i.e. -44%).

That is after the end of 2003 that the number of suckler-cows exceeded the number of dairy cows.

Distribution of the dairy and suckler-cows by former regions: great number of suckler-cows in Pays de Loire, as well as in the diagonal former Bourgogne former Massif Central former Midi Pyrénées. And a great number of dairy cows in the west (Bretagne+ Pays de la Loire + former basse Normandie).

In France, almost 2 million calves are slaughtered each year, the greatest part comes from the livestock the dairy cows.

Religions and mythologies
In India, a large part of the population traditionally considers cows as sacred animals. They are free to walk down the streets, even the highways. They are not intended to be eaten but provide the required milk for religious rituals. The churning of the ocean(Samudra manthan) is one of the Indian’s cosmogony myths. The Audhumla cow is a cosmogonic myth from the Scandinavian mythology.

The Surah Al-Baqara is the second and the longest Surah of the Koran. The name “chapter of the cow” refers to a disagreement between Moses and the Israelites about a cow they must sacrifice to get to know the murderer of a killed man. Not to be confused with biblical incident where Moses forbids to worship the golden calf.

The Torah refers to the rite of the red cow.