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Vocabulary: a few animals and the meat they give...

An advanced exercise on the Forum has proved to me what I hadn't imagined : you don't know your animals... and the meat (the flesh) that they unselfishly give us...

It started a long time ago... with William the Conqueror who fought and won the  Battle of Hastings in 1066 and became King William Ist of England.

He brought with him numerous nobles from Normandy ; these people have transmitted lots of words of Norman origin and added them to English which had a strong Saxon influence .  The Anglo-Saxon peasants would breed cattle [oxen , pigs, cows, calves, sheep , goats] and the Norman nobles would eat ‘beef', ‘pork', 'veal', 'mutton'...   

'Ox' is the general word for ‘a cow', a heifer (a young cow), a bull (the male), a bullock(GB)/steer(US) (a castrated male), a calf (=> calves in the plural)), a buffalo, domestic and wild species... The word 'Ox' is not much used now. 
A breeding farm (livestock farming) can specialize in: cattle farming, sheep farming, swine or pig farming,  or poultry farming.  

A bull fight	A buffalo
A herd of oxen (bullocks (GB)/steers(US)	2 oxen
A cow and calf	A calf (=> 2 calves)
Cow/bullock's meat = beef	Calves' meat : veal

Similarly, pigs and sheep changed names while they were becoming flesh to eat...

A ram	Two acrobatic sheep.
A ewe and a lamb	The sheep's meat = mutton
A  herd of sheep	A swine = a pig
Sows and piglets	The pig's meat = Pork

USEFUL VOCABULARY 

Now, you must be ready for the test!   May the Force be with you!  

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' Kids, this is a livestock farm, that’s to say that the farmers here breed cattle, bullocks and cowshorses and goatsdogs and catsI don't know together with tigers, lionsbears, donkeyspigs, sheepI don't know, and poultry.

In this first field you can see ostrichesbullockshorsesI don't know, bred for meat, and bullscowsmulesI don't know, mostly for milk. They’re all grazing freely.

No kids, the white cows are not with the poultrypigsherdbullsI don't know. They've just had their lambsramscalvespigletsI don't know which are milkedmilk-fedmilk-feedinggrazingI don't know. The cows are not milked for consumption, just now.

In this other field, you have sheep,ewes and lambscows and dogscows and bullsI don't know grazing. They’re bred for their wool and give excellent meat : lamb or chickenbeefporkmuttonhorseI don't know. No, kids! The lionshorsesewesramsI don't know are not with them… They’re in separated pens.

Yes, pigs are sheltered in this season. You can see horses and poneysswine or pigsdogs and goatsI don't know, but the bullockscowssowsewesI don't know are in separated pens when their cxalfslambspigletscalvesI don't know aren’t weaned. Yes, all of them will give excellent muttonbeefporkvealcornedbeefI don't know.

 

    

A piggy-bank  Star-sign: TAURUS (April, 21st-May 21st) Milk-fed calves give good veal...