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beef cattle
plural noun
: cattle developed primarily for the efficient production of meat and marked by capacity for rapid growth, heavy well-fleshed body, and stocky build
Examples of beef cattle in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The veal Our Home Place promotes doesn’t come from the dairy industry, but from Kentucky’s beef cattle industry.
—Keith Pandolfi, Saveur, 15 May 2024
Sales of beef cattle and breeding stock generate over $900 million per year in the state, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
—Anne Marie Lee, CBS News, 13 May 2024
And Colombia, which buys $43 million in beef annually from the U.S., has restricted beef imports, even though no evidence has yet been found of the virus in beef cattle.
—Shweta Bansal and Colleen Webb, STAT, 7 May 2024
In 2024, the state ranked ninth for beef cattle production with 862,000.
—Ana Goñi-Lessan, USA TODAY, 5 May 2024
Another possible route is the cows’ feed, owing to the fairly revolting fact that the U.S. allows farmers to feed leftover poultry bedding material — feathers, excrement, spilled seeds — to dairy and beef cattle as a cheap source of additional protein.
—Zeynep Tufekci, The Mercury News, 1 May 2024
There are no known cases of bird flu in beef cattle so far.
—Reuters, NBC News, 29 Apr. 2024
For the mixed grass prairie ecosystem of a place like North Dakota the key animal was the American Bison – but beef cattle can fill that role.
—Steven Savage, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024
Richter and other researchers have estimated that two-thirds of the alfalfa and other hay are used for beef cattle while the remaining third is used for dairy production.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 4 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'beef cattle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1758, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near beef cattle
Cite this Entry
“Beef cattle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beef%20cattle. Accessed 10 Jun. 2024.
Kids Definition
beef cattle
plural noun
: cattle developed primarily for effective production of meat
More from Merriam-Webster on beef cattle
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about beef cattle
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