Beef cattle

A young bull of the Blonde d'Aquitaine breed.

Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production (as distinguished from dairy cattle, used for milk production). The meat of cattle is known as beef. When raised in a feedlot cattle are known as feeder cattle. Many such feeder cattle are born in cow-calf operations specifically designed to produce beef calves. While the principal use of beef cattle is meat production, other uses include leather, and products used in shampoo and cosmetics.

Beef cattle breeds

Breed	Location of Origin	Description
Adaptaur	Australia	A tropically adapted Bos taurus breed, developed from crosses between Herefords and Shorthorns.
Afrikaner cattle	South Africa	Afrikaners are usually deep red with long spreading horns. They have the small cervico-thoracic hump typical of Sanga cattle.
Angus	Scotland	Pure black, sometimes with white at udder. Polled.
Australian Braford	Australia	Developed for resistance to ticks and for heat tolerance by crossing Brahmans and Herefords.
Australian Brangus	Australia	Polled breed developed by crossing Angus and Brahman
Australian Charbray	Australia	Developed by crossing Charolais and Brahman and selected for resistance to heat, humidity, parasites and diseases.
Beefmaster	Texas	Developed by breeding the Brahman, Shorthorn, and Hereford.
Belted Galloway	Scotland	Black with white band around middle, stocky, fairly long hair, polled. Very hardy and thrifty.
Belgian Blue	Belgium	Grey roan, or white with grey on head. Extremely muscular. Fast-growing if well-fed.
Belmont Red	Australia	A composite breed using Africander (African Sanga) and Hereford-Shorthorn
Black Hereford	Great Britain.	Black, white head. A hybrid produced by crossing a Hereford bull with Holstein or Friesian cows; used to obtain beef offspring from dairy cows. Not maintained as a separate breed, although females may be used for further breeding with other beef bulls.
Blonde d'Aquitaine	Aquitaine region of south-west France.	Pale brown, paler round eyes and nose. Muscular. Fast-growing if well-fed.
Bonsmara	South Africa	Developed from 5/8 Afrikaner, 3/16 Hereford and 3/16 Shorthorn animals.
Boran	Eastern Africa	Usually white, with the bulls being darker (sometimes almost black).
Brahman	India	Large, pendulous ears and dewlaps, hump over the shoulders
Brangus	United States	Developed by crossing Angus and Brahman
British White	Great Britain	White, with black (or sometimes red) ears, nose and feet; polled (hornless). Hardy and thrifty.
Caracu	Brazil
Charolais	Charolais France	Wholly white or cream, lyre-shaped pale horns, or polled. Fast-growing if well-fed.
Chianina	Italy	Dual purpose, originally large draft breed, later selected for beef.
Corriente	Mexico	Hardy, small, athletic, criollo-type, descended from Iberian cattle. Used in rodeo sports, noted for lean meat. Short horns,various colors, often spotted. Also called Criollo or Chinampo
Crioulo Lageano	Iberian Peninsula	400 years old longhorn breed with around 700 individuals that live close to the plateau of Lages, Santa Catarina, Brazil.
Dexter	Southwest of Ireland	Very small, black or dun, dark horns. Sometimes has a dwarfing gene leading to very short legs. Hardy and thrifty.
Droughtmaster	Australia	Developed by crossing Brahman cattle with taurine breeds, especially Beef Shorthorn. Tolerant of heat and ticks.
English Longhorn	Midlands of England.	Red or brindle, with white back and belly. Very long cylindrical horns usually spreading sideways or downwards, often curving and even eventually making a circle. Medium size, hardy.
Florida Cracker	Florida, USA	Small, criollo-type descended from catttle brought to the Southern U.S. by the Spanish Conquistadors. Adapted to subtropical climate, parasite-resistant. Endangered breed
Galloway	Galloway region of Scotland	Black, stocky, fairly long hair, polled. Very hardy and thrifty.
Gascon cattle	French Pyrenees	Grey, hardy, maternal breed. Good growth and conformation of calves. Suitable for all farming systems, bred pure or crossed with a terminal sire
Gelbvieh	Germany	Red, strong skin pigmentation, polled. Superior fertility, calving ease, mothering ability, and growth rate of calves.
Han-u	Korea
Hereford	Herefordshire, England	Red, white head, white finching on neck, and white switch.
Highland	Scotland.	Small, stocky; black, red, dun or white. Very long coat and very long pale horns, upswept in cows and steers. Very hardy and thrifty.
Hungarian Grey	Hungary.	Robust, easy-calving and long-lived. Horns long, curved and directed upward. Slender and tall. Well adapted to extensive pasture systems.
Irish Moiled	Northwest of Ireland.	Red with white back and belly, or white with red ears, nose and feet. Polled. Hardy and thrifty.
Limousin	Limousin and Marche regions of France.	Mid-brown, paler round eyes and nose. Fast-growing if well-fed.
Lowline	Australia	Developed by selectively breeding small Angus cattle.
Luing	The isle of Luing (/ˈlɪŋ/) and surrounding islands in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland.	Rough coat, red-brown, polled. Bred by crossing Beef Shorthorn with Highland. Very hardy and thrifty.
Maine-Anjou	Anjou region in West France.	Red-and-white pied.
Mocho Nacional	Brazil	Polled
Murray Grey	South Eastern Australia	Grey or silver polled cattle developed from a roan Shorthorn cow and an Angus bull. Easy-care versatile cattle that have been exported to many countries.
Nelore	India	Exported to Brazil, where it has become a dominant breed.
Nguni	South Africa	Extremely hardy breed developed by Nguni tribes for harsh African conditions. Originally derived from the African Sanga Cattle, although quite distinct. Three subgroups are recognised, Makhatini, Swazi and Pedi.
North Devon	Devon, Cornwall and Somerset: the West Country in the south-west of England.	Ruby-red, white tail switch, white horns.
Piedmontese	Piedmont	Bred both for beef and dairy production; double muscled. White colored and possessing myostatin genes.
Pineywoods	Gulf coast, USA	Landrace heritage endangered breed, lean, small, adapted to climate of the deep south, disease-resistant. Short horns, various colors, often spotted
Pinzgauer	Austria	A breed of cattle indigenous to the Pinz Valley, near Salzburg, Austria. Reared and used as dairy cattle in Europe although they are well adapted to drier landscapes of there USA, Australia and Southern Africa where they are kept for beef production or dual purposes. Solid red with very distinctive white blaze from wither, down to tail tip and underside.
Red Angus	Scotland	Colour variety of Angus: solid red. Polled.
Red Poll	East Anglia in England	Red with white switch, polled (hornless), dual purpose.
Romagnola	Italy	Bred primarily for beef production; often used as draught beasts in the past. White or grey with black pigmented skin and upward curving horns.
Romosinuano	Colombia
Salers	France	Red. Hardy, easy calving.
Santa Gertrudis	Southern Texas	Developed by crossing red Shorthorn and Brahma
Simmental	Western Switzerland	Yellowish-brown, white head. Fast-growing if well-fed. Dual purpose (beef, dairy).
Shorthorn/Beef Shorthorn	Northern England	Red, red with white back and belly, or white.
Square Meater	New South Wales, Australia	Small, grey or silver, polled; similar to Murray Grey.
Sussex	South-east England	Rich chestnut red with white tail switch and white horns. Also used for draught until early 20th century. Hardy and thrifty.
Tabapuan	Brazil
Tajima	Japan	Black Wagyu bred for internationally renown beefs such as Kobe and Matsuzaka.
Texas Longhorn	Texas	Various colours, with very long, tapering, upswept horns – extending as much as 80 inches (2.0 m) tip to tip. Very hardy in dry climates. Light muscled, so bulls often used for first-calf heifers.
Wagyū	Japan	Black, horned, and noted for heavy marbling (intramuscular fat deposition).
Welsh Black	Wales	Black, white upswept horns with black tips. Hardy.
White Park	Great Britain, Ireland.	White, with black (or sometimes red) ears, nose and feet; white horns with dark tips. Hardy and thrifty.

Breeds known as dual purpose breeds are also used for beef production. These breeds have been selected for two purposes at once, such as for both beef and dairy production, or both beef and draught. Dual-purpose breeds include the Brown Swiss and many of the Zebu breeds of India such as Tharparkar and Ongole Cattle. The original Shorthorn was also a dual-purpose breed but diverged into two groups through selective breeding.

A steer that weighs 1,000 lb (450 kg) when alive will make a carcase weighing about 615 lb (280 kg), once the blood, head, feet, skin, offal and guts have been removed. The carcase will then be hung in a cold room for between one and four weeks, during which time it loses some weight as water dries from the meat. When boned and cut by a butcher or packing house this carcase would then make about 430 lb (200 kg) of beef.

Disease in Beef Cattle

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE, most commonly called Mad Cow Disease has effects on beef cattle and the industry. It is one of the worst diseases to possibly get in beef cattle, but it is nowhere near the most common. However, it is not the most common by a large margin. Unfortunately, there is still not a known cure for Mad Cow Disease. Also, there is no known way to test for the disease while the animal is living; it must be done after death. The brain tissue is examined microscopically to determine if it had this fatal disease. An irregular protein called a prion is believed to cause the disease. A similar disease in sheep, called Scrapie, is related to Mad Cow Disease. The disease is believed to be passed around by an animal eating part of another animal that was carrying the disease. A cow can pick up the prion and carry it for years before showing symptoms of the disease. These symptoms include “stumbling, muscle twitching, quivering, strange behavior (thus the common term, "mad cow"), a drop in milk production, the inability to stand and eventually death.” (Grover). Some believe that cattle got it by eating feeds containing sheep byproducts. It was a common practice to take the byproducts of animals, process them, and put them into feeds. It was cheaper than buying protein additives and other supplements. Due to an increase in oil prices in the 1970s and 80s, the processing became less thorough and thus allowed prions to remain in the byproducts. This reduction in processing led to an enormous outbreak of Mad Cow Disease in United Kingdom. Infected cows were processed and parts were added to feeds which multiplied the problem. The first case of Mad Cow Disease was found in November of 1986. It grew and spread in Europe. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the BSE epidemic in cattle peaked in January 1993 at approximately 1,000 new cases reported per week in Great Britain.” (Grover). By 1997 the number of cases in the United Kingdom was over 168,000. Thankfully the number of cases dropped significantly over the next years and has been under much more control since then. The United States has taken many precautionary measures to make sure that the Mad Cow Disease outbreak stays out of the country. Many feed bans have been put in to effect, import control is high, and government agencies are always on the lookout and testing for BSE. In 1989, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services banned the importing of live ruminants from any countries where Mad Cow Disease is known to exist. Also, any byproducts from ruminants cannot be imported. The ban was extended to all countries in Europe in 1997. Then in 2000 the USDA banned the import of any animal protein products from Europe. Feed companies are inspected regularly to make sure they are within the regulations. The United States is well prepared if there is ever a possible outbreak of BSE in the country. However, the risk of an outbreak is very small. Since the huge BSE wave has swept through Europe, only 4 cases have been discovered in the United States and only 19 in Canada. The most recent case was discovered on April 24, 2012 in a dairy cow in California. It was confirmed by the USDA after testing, and the animal was not presented to be slaughtered for human consumption. Of the 4 cases that were confirmed in the United States, 1 of the cases was found in a cow that had been born in Canada and later taken to the United States. Of the 19 Canadian cases of Mad Cow Disease, 1 cow had been imported from the United Kingdom. Thankfully, the United States and Canada have done a tremendous job to prevent a large outbreak of Mad Cow Disease. They have also been able to control the low number of cases so far. A similar disease, which is extremely rare, called Creutzfeltd-Jakob Disease or vCJD is believed to be caused by consuming the nervous system tissues of a BSE infected animal. There is not a certain relation between the two diseases however. This still can scare people away from eating beef even though the meat does not transmit the disease. It is carried in the nervous system tissues like the brain and spinal cord tissue. Chances of getting it are very low. One in one million people get it each year. Government agencies such as the USDA, FDA, and others have worked hard to ensure that the United States has the safest food supply in the world.

See also

• Conjugated linoleic acid
• List of breeds of cattle

References

2.Yam, Philip. "MAD COW DISEASE. (Cover Story)." Scientific American 301.3 (2009): 89. Business Source Elite. Web. 12 Oct. 2012.

3.Grover, Steven F., and Sheila R. Cohn. "Worried About Mad Cow Disease?." Restaurant Hospitality 85.5 (2001): 126. Business Source Elite. Web. 12 Oct. 2012.

4.Bren, Linda. "FDA Continues Work To Help Prevent Mad Cow Disease." FDA Consumer 36.3 (2002): 31. Business Source Elite. Web. 12 Oct. 2012.

5."BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy of Mad Cow Disease)." Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 Sep 2012. Web. 12 Oct 2012.

External links

• Oklahoma University pages about cattle breeds.