Steer

Steer definition is also given as a bullock. It is a young neutered male cattle majorly raised for beef. In the terminology used to define the age and sex of the cattle, first, the male is a bull calf and if left intact, it becomes a bull; if castrated, he becomes a steer and up to 2 or 3 years grows to an ox. Usually, males retained for the beef production are castrated to make them docile on the range or in the feedlots. Castration is done on males destined for use as bullocks or working oxen to make them tractable at labour.

Appearance of Steer

The weight and size of a steer are highly dependent on the breed, ranging their weight from 450 –1,360 kg (1,000 –3,000 pounds). Steers can have horns, and although these can be short in several breeds, they may grow to be spectacularly large, such as in African Ankole-Watusi cows and Texas longhorns. A few breeds are genetically polled (or hornless), and others can be dehorned (i.e., have their horn buds destroyed) at a young age to make them easier to transport and work around safely.

The below figure represents the Cattle in Texas longhorn steer.

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Taxonomy

Originally, cattle were identified as three separate species: Bos taurus, the "taurine" or European cattle (including the same types from Asia and Africa); Bos indicus, the "zebu" or Indicine; and the extinct Bos primigenius, which are the aurochs. The aurochs are ancestral to both taurine and zebu cattle. Bos taurus has been classed as a single species with three subspecies:

A complicating matter is the ability of cattle to interbreed with the other closely related species. Even hybrid individuals and breeds exist, not only between the zebu and taurine cattle (such as Bos taurus Africanus, the Sanga cattle) but also between either one or both of these and a few other members of the genus Bos – yaks (yattle or the dzo), gaur and banteng.

Hybrids such as the beefalo breed may even take place between taurine cattle and either species of bison, leading a few authors to consider them as a part of the genus Bos too. The hybrid origin of a few types cannot be obvious. For example, genetic testing of the Dwarf Lulu breed, which is the only taurine-type cattle in Nepal, found them to be a mix of zebu, taurine cattle, and yak. However, cattle may not be successfully hybridized with more distantly related bovines such as African buffalo or water buffalo.

Originally, the aurochs ranged throughout North Africa, Europe, and most of Asia. In historical times, its range became restricted to the European region, and the last known individual died in Poland, Mazovia, up to 1627. Breeders have attempted to recreate cattle of the same appearance to aurochs by crossing traditional domesticated cattle types, creating the Heck cattle breed.

Characteristics

• Anatomy

Cattle are ungulate animals with cloven hooves that are big quadrupedal. Most of the breeds have horns that can be small, like a scur or as large as the Texas Longhorn. Careful genetic selection has allowed the polled (hornless) cattle to become widespread.

The below figure is a skeleton view of a domestic cow.

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• Digestive System

Cattle are ruminants, which means that their digestive system is highly specialized to allow the use of poorly digestible plants as food. Cattle contain one stomach having four compartments, the reticulum, rumen, abomasum and omasum, with the rumen being the largest compartment. The reticulum, which is the smallest compartment, is called the "honeycomb." The main function of the omasum is to absorb nutrients and water from the digestible feed. The omasum is called "many plies." The abomasum is like the human stomach and due to this reason, it is called the "true stomach."

The Anatomy model of a cow is figured below.

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• Gestation and Size

The gestation period for a cow is up to 9 months long. The size of a newborn calf can differ among breeds, but a typical calf weighs about 25 to 45 kg (55 to 99 lb). Adult weight and size significantly differ among sex and breeds. Generally, steers are killed before reaching 750 kg (or 1,650 lb). Breeding stock can be allowed a longer lifespan, occasionally living longer than 25 years. The oldest recorded cow, named - Big Bertha, died in 1993 at the age of 48.

• Reproduction

It is very common on farms to use Artificial Insemination (AI), which is a medically assisted reproduction technique having the artificial deposition of semen in the genital tract of a female. It can be used in cases where the spermatozoa cannot reach the fallopian tubes or just by choice of the owner of the animal. It consists of transferring, to the uterine cavity, spermatozoa which are collected and processed (such as dry steering) previously, with the selection of morphologically normal and mobile spermatozoa.

An udder of a cow consists of two pairs of mammary glands (commonly known as teats), creating 4 "quarters." The front ones are known as forequarters and the rear ones as rear quarters.

• Weight

The weight of the adult cattle differs, depending on the breed. Smaller kinds, such as Jersey and Dexter adults, range between 272 - 454 kg (600 - 1,000 lb). Large Continental breeds, such as Marchigiana, Charolais, Chianina, and Belgian Blue adults range from 635 - 1,134 kg (1,400 - 2,500 lb). British breeds, such as Angus, Hereford, and Shorthorn, mature at between 454 - 907 kg (1,000 - 2,000 lb), occasionally higher, especially with Hereford and Angus.

Bulls are larger compared to the cows of a similar breed by up to some hundred kilograms. Chianina bulls may weigh up to 1,500 kg (3,300 lb); British bulls, such as Hereford and Angus, can weigh as little as 907 kg (2,000 lb) to as much as 1,361 kg (3,000 lb).

Cognition

In laboratory studies, young cattle are capable of memorizing the locations of many food sources and retain this memory for at least 8 hours, although this has declined after 12 hours. 15-month-old heifers learn more quickly than the adult cows that have had either one or two calvings, but their longer-term memory is very less stable. Mature cattle usually perform well in spatial learning tasks and contain a good long-term memory in these tests.

Cattle tested in a radial arm maze are capable of remembering the locations of high-quality food for at least 30 days. Although initially, they learn to avoid low-quality food, this memory diminishes over a similar duration. Under the less artificial testing conditions, young ones showed they were able to remember the location of feed for a minimum range of 48 days. Cattle can make an association between the food and visual stimulus within one day - the memory of this association can be retained for a year, despite a small decay.

Calves are able to discriminate learning and adult cattle compare favourably with the small mammals in their learning ability of the Closed-field Test.

Also, they are able to discriminate between familiar individuals and among humans. Cattle can exhibit the difference between the unfamiliar and familiar animals of similar species (or conspecifics). Studies have shown that they behave less aggressively towards familiar individuals when they form a new group. Also, calves can discriminate between humans based on previous experience, as said by approaching those who positively handled them and avoiding those who aversively handled them. Although cattle may discriminate between humans by their faces alone, they can also use other cues such as clothes' colour when these are available.

In cattle, temperament can affect the production traits such as meat quality or milk yield and carcass, as well as affecting the overall health and reproduction of the animal. Cattle temperament is described as "the consistent physiological and behavioural difference observed between the individuals in response to an environmental or stressor challenge and can be used to define the relatively stable difference in the behavioural predisposition of an animal that can be related to psychobiological mechanisms." In general, cattle temperament is assumed to be multidimensional. 5 underlying categories of temperament traits have been proposed below:

• Exploration-avoidance

• Shyness-boldness

• Aggressiveness

• Activity

• Sociability

In a study on the Holstein–Friesian heifers learning to press the panel to open a gate for access to a food reward, the researchers have also recorded the behaviour and heart rate of the heifers when moving along the race towards the food. When the heifers made the clear improvements in learning, they had higher heart rates and tended to move vigorously along the race. And, the researchers concluded this was any indication, which cattle may react emotionally to their own learning improvement.

Senses of Cattle

Cattle use all 5 widely recognized sensory modalities. These can assist in a few complex behavioural patterns. For instance, in grazing behaviour. Cattle eat mixed diets, but when given the opportunity, exhibit a partial preference of nearly 30% grass and 70% clover. This preference holds a diurnal pattern, with a stronger preference for clover in the morning and the grass proportion increasing towards the evening.

Vision

Vision is defined as the dominant sense in cattle and they obtain up to 50% of their information visually. 

Cattle are the prey animals and to assist the predator detection, their eyes are located on the sides of their head rather than the front part. This gives them a wide field of view of 330° but limits the binocular vision (and thus stereopsis) to 30° - 50° compared to 140° in humans. This means they contain a blind spot directly behind them. Cattle have a good visual acuity, but to that of humans, their visual accommodation is poor.

Conclusion

Most of the steers are raised for the production of beef. Beef cattle, such as the Aberdeen-Angus and common Hereford breeds, have been bred to produce muscle, not milk, and tend to be much healthier than dairy cows. Breeds of beef cattle have variable characteristics in regards to the fat content, growth rate of the meat, ability and disease resistance to handle drought. A wide range of organs, including kidneys, liver, brains, heart, and different glands, may be collected from the steers and sold for human consumption. Also, steers are used as a source of leather for clothing, other products and, albeit controversially, as participants in the rodeo events such as steer roping and steer wrestling.