Is there a gender neutral term for a single animal of the Bovine species?
A single female is a cow
A single male is a bull
A castrated male is a steer
An unbred female is a heifer
A juvenile is a calf
All of those terms can be pluralized according to normal conventions.
There is also the collective cattle
But what I don't know, is if there is a word for a single individual of the species that can be applied regardless of sex. Something like "pig" which can be applied to any individual swine.
From my experience working on a cattle farm, it gets too pedantic to keep on saying "cattle," so we just said "cow" when the context made it fairly obvious that there was no specific reference to gender. However, one tends to avoid the use of that word by simply using the correct gender form, as in "bull" or "cow."
"Neat" is a bit archaic, but is the correct word. As in neatsfoot oil. That is the English word for a neutral gender of a single animal from a herd of cattle.
Aside from the common, general nontechnical use of the word 'cow', the word is 'ox':
- A bovine mammal, especially one that has been domesticated.
(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. S.v. "ox." Retrieved May 6 2016 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ox )
- (Animals) any bovine mammal, esp any of the domestic cattle
(Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014. S.v. "ox." Retrieved May 6 2016 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ox )
The singular form of beeves dictionary.com, beef
"an adult cow, steer, or bull raised for its meat."
As someone who minored in agriculture during university, I'm just gonna let y'all know that according to my profs and textbooks, the gender neutral term is "cattle beast." It's weird, I know, but that's what it is apparently. 🤷🏼♀️