Raining on the Barn

The fat cows file into the barn, keeping close to one another for the sake of both space and warmth. Their big brown eyes attempting to take in the turning of the weather, wondering where the sun went, and why the farmers have all gone inside their wooden cave. After a clumsy deliberation, they decided to enter the dry place, in hopes that the grass would still be there after the clouds decide to part once more. Cows are often referred to as cattle. The word cattle did not originate as the term for bovine animal cow. It was borrowed from Old French catel, itself from Latin caput, head, and originally meant movable personal property, especially livestock of any kind, as opposed to real property (the land, which also included wild or small free-roaming animals such as chickens — they were sold as part of the land). The word is closely related to "chattel" (a unit of personal property) and "capital" in the economic sense. Cattle can only be used in the plural and not in the singular. "Cow" is in general use as a singular for the collective "cattle", despite the objections by those who insist it to be a female-specific term. Other than the few bulls needed for breeding, the vast majority of male cattle are castrated as calves and slaughtered for meat before the age of three years. Thus, in a pastured herd, any calves or herd bulls usually are clearly distinguishable from the cows due to distinctively different sizes and clear anatomical differences.