Domestic cattle (Bos taurus) longevity, ageing, and life history

Classification (HAGRID: 01910)

Taxonomy: Kingdom: Animalia
    Phylum: Chordata
        Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
            Order: Artiodactyla
                Family: Bovidae
                    Genus: Bos
Species: Bos taurus
Common name: Domestic cattle
Synonyms: Bos indicus, Bos primigenius

Lifespan, ageing, and relevant traits

Maximum longevity

20 years (captivity)

Source

ref. 434

Sample size

Large

Data quality

Questionable

Observations

Estimating the maximum longevity of domestic cattle is troublesome since there are many conflicting reports. Females appear to remain fertile for about 12 years, and animals have been known to live over 20 years [0434]. Most likely, animals can live over 20 years and there are even anecdotal reports of a cow called "Big Bertha" that lived nearly 49 years. Lastly, there are unverified reports that miniature cattle live longer than normal animals.

Another reason why estimating the longevity of domestic cattle is troublesome is because beef cattle are usually slaughtered before reaching their maximum lifespan, leading to most records in this subject to be from dairy cows. Furthermore, aged animals suffer from lameness and joint conditions, which may lead to their early culling [1389].

Life history traits (averages)

Female sexual maturity: 548 days
Male sexual maturity: 365 days
Gestation: 277 days
Weaning
Litter size: 1 (viviparous)
Litters per year: 1
Inter-litter interval
Weight at birth
Weight at weaning
Adult weight: 750,000 g
Postnatal growth rate: 0.0031 days^-1 (from Gompertz function)
Maximum longevity residual: 51%

Metabolism

Typical body temperature: 311ºK or 38.0ºC or 100.4ºF
Basal metabolic rate: 306.7700 W
Body mass: 347000.0 g
Metabolic rate per body mass: 0.000884 W/g

References

[1389] Hoffman and Valencak (2020), A short life on the farm: aging and longevity in agricultural, large-bodied mammals (PubMed)
[1262] De Biase et al. (2017), Amyloid precursor protein, lipofuscin accumulation and expression of autophagy markers in aged bovine brain (PubMed)
[1308] Myhrvold et al. (2015), An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles
[1136] Gomes et al. (2011), Comparative biology of mammalian telomeres: hypotheses on ancestral states and the roles of telomeres in longevity determination (PubMed)
[0978] Jones et al. (2009), PanTHERIA: a species-level database of life history, ecology, and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals
[1071] Wynand et al. (2006), Absence of a causal relationship between environmental and body temperature in dairy cows (Bos taurus) under moderate climatic conditions
[0715] Lorenzini et al. (2005), Cellular replicative capacity correlates primarily with species body mass not longevity (PubMed)
[0036] Savage et al. (2004), The predominance of quarter-power scaling in biology
[0189] Kapahi et al. (1999), Positive correlation between mammalian life span and cellular resistance to stress (PubMed)
[0434] Ronald Nowak (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World
[0731] Zullinger et al. (1984), Fitting sigmoid equations to mammalian growth curves
[0436] Cutler (1979), Evolution of human longevity: a critical overview (PubMed)

External Resources