# How do you say it - Cow or Cattle?



## elevan (Sep 18, 2011)

Please let us know how refer to the domestic bovine.  Is is cattle or cow?


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## Nifty (Sep 18, 2011)

Great poll!   We started out as "BackYardCows" and we have a whole section on "cows", but the big question is:  Should we swap out "cows" for "cattle" in all the forum section titles?

Let us know which one use!


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## currycomb (Sep 18, 2011)

one female bovine is a cow, several bovines are cattle


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## elevan (Sep 18, 2011)

currycomb said:
			
		

> one female bovine is a cow, several bovines are cattle


True.  But as a collective we'd like to know how members reference them. Would you mind casting your vote above for how you reference them to help us out?


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## jhm47 (Sep 18, 2011)

It should be cattle.  Cows are females.  This forum covers cows, heifers, bulls, steers, calves, etc., and cattle covers all of them.


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## Stubbornhillfarm (Sep 19, 2011)

jhm47 said:
			
		

> It should be cattle.  Cows are females.  This forum covers cows, heifers, bulls, steers, calves, etc., and cattle covers all of them.


X2


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## aggieterpkatie (Sep 19, 2011)

My vote is for cattle as well.  We want to be using the correct terminology!


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## WildRoseBeef (Sep 19, 2011)

Cattle is the proper term to refer to those animals (or cattlebeasts) that we do not know the sex, age, or even breed of.  Cows is just not right, especially if there's a few bulls in with a herd of cows.  For me, calling a bull a cow is a bit of an insult! :/  I only call it a herd of cows if I know FOR SURE if that herd ARE _just_ cows, not a mix of sexes and/or ages.


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## elevan (Sep 19, 2011)

Thanks for the input folks!  Make sure you're casting your vote at the top of the page


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## secuono (Sep 19, 2011)

Stubbornhillfarm said:
			
		

> jhm47 said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


x3
As a whole, cattle. Cows are females. I'd think mainly city people would call them all 'cows' no matter the gender. No offense to these people, I was one of them. =p


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## OtterCreekRanch (Sep 20, 2011)

When I refer to our cattle I refer to them as "our cows" even when we have a bull and various number of bull or steer calves. That is just always what I have called them and I have been around cattle my whole life. *shrug*


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## 77Herford (Sep 20, 2011)

currycomb said:
			
		

> one female bovine is a cow, several bovines are cattle


Not asking dictionary version.  Asking how you mention them.  Unless I'm generalizing on the herd in general its usually cows as they are the most important to me and always heard the word Cow used instead of Cattle.


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## Nifty (Sep 20, 2011)

Now this is interesting!   I dove into the stats of the site and reviewed the keywords peeps were searching for.  I searched for the top ones that contained "cow" and the ones that contained "cattle" and look what I found:

*Visits	Keyword*
308	cow treats
178	keeping a family cow
122	cow anatomy
110	backyard cows
96	zebu cow foum
67	backyard cow
65	f1 cattle
63	treats for cows
58	cow collars
47	cattle anatomy
39	butchering sick cattle
35	cow lunger
32	anatomy of cow

While "cow" may not be the correct term to use, it is the term most peeps are using to find BYH.


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## Nifty (Sep 20, 2011)

Data sure is a tricky thing!  People may be finding us more using "cow" because either:

1)  More people search for "cows" or
2)  Because our site uses the word "cows" more, or
3)  Both of the above.

I ran some test queries in the following tool to see what people are searching for:  http://www.google.com/insights/search/

It shows trends for searches, but if the searches are low volume they may not show up there.

Some samples: 
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=cows,cattle&cmpt=q
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=raising cows,raising cattle&cmpt=q
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=how to raise cows,how to raise cattle&cmpt=q

So, going by that data, we may be better off with cattle vs. cows. from a search position.


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## aggieterpkatie (Sep 20, 2011)

Are you just wanting to go with what people use more, or are you wanting to be correct?    Most people who come here are new to livestock, I'm guessing.  I think it's good that the site would use proper terminology so people learn not all bovines are cows.


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## Nifty (Sep 20, 2011)

We "want" both!  

At first it looked like the two wants were mutually exclusive, but it looks like "cattle" isn't only correct, but may be more popular a term too!


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## kstaven (Sep 21, 2011)

My take on it is this. From searches I have done with google many posts have come up based on the text rather than title or the specific section of the forum. So if the proper term was to be used in the forum sections and people will no doubt continue to use the word cow also it gives us the best of both worlds.


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## kstaven (Sep 23, 2011)

Thanks for your input folks. We have changed the forum section titles.


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