Color:
“Black mott” … medium star (referring to the size of a white shape in the forehead) or maybe heart head … also, “brown beard”
Head shape:
Small, “baby faced”
Ears:
“Airplane ears” (extend to the side) … yellow #30 tag in the left ear
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Black-nose
Color:
Red/Orange
Head shape:
Classic Limousin breed head shape … wide forehead … box-like
Poll:
Rounded with “bangs”
Ears:
Short
Eyes:
Light around the eyes (if you had a group of all Limousins, the rather obscure pink skin “rectangle” under the left eye might be noted to distinguish him from the others)
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Huge cow-lick/swirl in the middle of the forehead … light nose
Final Thoughts:
Describing cattle takes practice, and again, it’s not a perfect science.
I suggest that you get an order to the sequence as you describe their characteristics as noted above (breed and color first, for example) and go from there.
Have fun with this! Gather a group of friends. During the open class, for example, begin to describe cattle physically as they are being settled. Make it a learning game.
Then, if you can hear the herd helpers in the bleachers as the open riders show, listen to their descriptions, too. The more you observe and practice, the more comfortable you will become.
I love this! I have cattle, and from now on will be looking at them differently!! Great stuff!
This is very helpful. The terms used are short but very descriptive.
What happens if the herd consists of all black angus (a few had white bellies), they were the same size (small).
This is great! I’m going to pay more attention to this now.
Information on each breed behavioral characteristics; ie: Floppy ears are the devil; black baldys have multiple personalities ranging from lazy to bullfighter-material; cream colored are reincarnated racehorses…
You are making me giggle, Marsha. (((-:
Informative and fun!
Thanks for this! Funny story: when my friend started cutting she had no cow knowledge. The herd help told her to cut the bald faced cow. She thought to herself “these cows all have hair on their faces, none of them are bald!”