Taurine cattle Bos taurus
Definition
Taurine cattle are the humpless cattle of temperate origin and, with zebu, make up the most widespread large ruminant livestock, raised for milk, meat and hides and for draught power in systems ranging from feedlot and specialised dairy units to mixed crop-livestock and pastoral herds. The scale is industrial: USDA counted 86.2 million cattle and calves in the United States on 1 January 2026, including 27.6 million beef cows and 9.57 million milk cows, against a 2025 calf crop of 32.9 million. Reproduction drives the management calendar. The oestrous cycle averages 21 days with a range of 18 to 24, gestation is about 283 days, and a cow has roughly 82 days between calving and rebreeding if she is to hold a yearly calving interval; heifers reach puberty near 11 months but must do so by 14 to 15 months to calve at two years, and are bred at about 65 percent of mature weight. Clinically, taurine cattle are the heat-sensitive half of the species pair: compared with zebu they carry a higher metabolic rate and larger heart and liver, eat more, and lose more ground in hot climates, while returning better feedlot gain and carcass quality and a calmer temperament in the chute.
Vital facts
- Gestation
- 283
- Respiratory rate
- 26 – 50
- Age at first breeding
- 14 – 15 months
- Body temperature
- 38 – 39.3 C
- Heart rate
- 48 – 84 bpm
Approximately 283 days from fertilisation to birth; the same publisher uses 283 as the gestation constant in its calving-date tables. Neither source gives a range.
Dairy cow at rest; MSD and Mississippi State Extension independently give the identical 26-50 range.
Heifers must reach puberty by 14-15 months to calve at two years; UGA gives first breeding at about 14 months.
Adult dairy cow row of the MSD normal rectal temperature table (adapted from Dukes' Physiology of Domestic Animals, 12th ed.). ADULT, rectal. The same table prints a separate beef cow row, 36.7-39.1 C / 98.0-102.4 F; the two rows are not merged here. Replaces the withdrawn 37.8-39.2, which was a CALF table from a UGA extension page.
Adult dairy cow row of the MSD resting heart rate table (adapted from Dukes' Physiology of Domestic Animals, 12th ed.). RESTING adult. The same table prints a separate Ox row, 36-60 bpm (castrated adult draught bovine); the two rows are not merged here, which is what produced the withdrawn 36-84.
Only sourced measures are shown. A measure missing here means no reliable reference states it for this species — not that the page is incomplete.
Breeds
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Clinical signs — nothing linked
No clinical sign is published yet — the same gap that stops the sign finder working.
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