So, how much do you know about cattle? I'm a city kid, and my local 4-H club was more concerned with houseplants. When I signed up for Showcattle.com, all that I knew was that one end ate, one end pooped, and the bit in the middle became hamburgers. Here's the stuff I looked up:

CatCov's Crash Course in Cattle

Calves are baby cattle. Bull calves or bullocks are males calves and grow into bulls. If they are castrated then they are called steers. (Showcattle calves can be castrated during their first two weeks of life for a small fee. Steers are the focus of showing; unlike other animal shows, cattle shows focus on the animals that your breeding herd is able to produce instead of individuals.)

Cow calves or heifers are female calves and are called cows after having a calf. Open cows are not pregnant; but a female cow won't breed unless it is in heat (it will be highlighted by the game).

BW is the Birth Weight of a calf. WW is the Weaning Weight of a calf and can be used as a predictor of how good a cow's offspring's WW will be. YW is the Yearling Weight of a cow and a good predictor of future growth.

Polled cattle naturally have no horns. This mutation arises sometimes (as it did in the Hereford breed) and many cattle breeders have decided that it is a desireable trait, so they work to propagate the trait in their herds.

Crossbred cattle are the result of crossing two purebred strains of cattle.

In terminal shows some or all of the cattle are sent to market after the show. The results of slaughtering them are usually used to choose the winners.

ShowCattle.com for Showdog Users

A lot of people have been following the links from one site to the other so in this section I'll outline the major differences. :)

Unlike Showdog.com, where the genetic (fixed) traits (the main colored numbers) are seperated from the traits that change as you session the dog (the bottom row numbers), almost all of the cow's traits are affected by both genetic factors and choices that you make about feed. This makes the game more like real life in that you have to make deductions about which animals are better genetically without being able to see their genome.

There is no daily salary on the site. You can make money by

• sending cattle to market (you are paid per pound)
• selling cattle to other players (auction is the only option now, private sales are coming soon)
• selling semen from your bulls (this feature may be only available to Premium players)
• winning shows (steer classes only)

You do not need to "session" or interact with your cows on a daily basis. You probably want to check your pasture for cows in heat if you have any who have not been bred yet.

You can breed bulls and cows of different breeds. After several generations, you may arrive at a recognized breed that is not offered as a starter breed, or you may have a cow who is considered purebred.

Unlike Showdog, other users cannot see your cows unless they are in your Show String. This keeps the site running faster because the database isn't called on as often!

There are no third-party programs for estimating the quality of cattle yet.

Notes at the end of April: The game has been "live" for less than a month. Everyone is working with starter animals, so this is a great time to sign up. There are no Premium accounts yet because so many features are still being developed and there are no restrictions on Basic accounts.

Muscling

More important for steers. Most important for judging.

Depends on both cow's genetics and the "amount it is worked" ? Changes as cow grows (until 40 days?)

Structure

Each breed has an ideal frame and bone size. Most of these are constant, determined only by genetics and not feed.

Capacity is very important when cows are bred. If it is too low the calf may be lost because there is no room for it to grow.

Fat

Which feed cattle are on has a huge impact on fat! Genetics also play a role.