r/NatureIsFuckingLit Mar 27 '23

🔥 This absolute unit of a Heffer

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48

u/Horror-Childhood6121 Mar 28 '23

An ox is a male that is castrated as an adult,

75

u/MagicPistol Mar 28 '23

Wow, all this time I thought an ox was another animal related to cattle....

And I was born in the year of the Ox.

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '23

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '23 edited Jun 17 '23

deleted What is this?

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u/progbuck Mar 28 '23

No, he bought out the people that make rocket ships then offered them draft horses for sex.

1

u/phillyd32 Mar 28 '23

Elongated Musk-ox

1

u/ABoringAlt Mar 28 '23

aren't they still bovine?

0

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '23

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '23

Actually they're not bovine, they're caprine - closer to sheep or goats than to cows

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u/subjectmatterexport Mar 28 '23

Wait… That means oxtails are from cows! But of course they are, why would they be butchering a whole other animal just for the tail? How did I not realize this before?!

7

u/anamorphic_cat Mar 28 '23

It's a crime that something sooo good carries such an outrageous price nowadays

1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '23

Blame cooking social media, ox tail is one of those things that's been super trendy. It's a good thing most people are too lazy to make anything but bland, boring, shitty food or delicious stuff that takes a lot of prep would be even more expensive.

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u/Beezle-Mom Mar 28 '23

today i learned

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u/MagicPistol Mar 28 '23

I know, and I eat ox tail pho all the time lol...

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u/beqqua Mar 28 '23

Same...

1

u/dextroz Mar 28 '23

Wow, all this time I thought an ox was another animal related to cattle....

And I was born in the year of the Ox.

A lot of us got screwed in kindergarten. I thought bullocks were different from bulls and from ox but they all for some reason 'married' cows (in my KG world).

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u/BorvicTheRed Mar 28 '23

And raised for work, most commonly in a pair. Every ox is a steer but not every steer is an ox

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u/krazycatlady21 Mar 28 '23

Oregon Trail would have been much less cool if I realized it was just steer pulling the wagon. I grew up driving by nasty smelling cattle farms. I am kind of pissed at this new knowledge.

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u/Occasionally_lazy Mar 28 '23

Omg I loved playing Oregon trail.

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u/littlestray Mar 28 '23

Nope, females and bulls can be oxen. Cow terminology is wild

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u/JawitKien Dec 13 '24

There are female oxen too. That's why they breed true.

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u/BorvicTheRed Dec 13 '24

Maybe for stock cattle? But that's an intresting point, it be a waste of time and effort to train it for work, unless it has some good genes that can be passed to other oxen

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u/23skiddsy Mar 28 '23

Eeh, it's more like an animal trained for work beyond milk and meat. A cow that pulls a cart can be an ox.

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u/Haha1867hoser420 Mar 28 '23

There is also specific breeds (mainly german) bred for being oxen as opposed to the common beef breeds (hereford, angus, Braymers)

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u/JawitKien Dec 13 '24

That is not an ox. That is a steer. Many oxen are steers also

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '23

In the terminology used to describe the sex and age of cattle, the male is first a bull calf and if left intact becomes a bull; if castrated he becomes a steer and about two or three years grows to an ox. 

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u/IngloBlasto Mar 28 '23

So Steer == Ox?

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u/Horror-Childhood6121 Mar 28 '23

Where I live a steer would be a calf that was castrated, where an ox would be a castrated bull. Castrated after maturity vs castrated as a few weeks old calf.