Age is an important part of livestock trading as many markets have age limits. The age of an animal can be determined by counting the number of permanent incisor teeth, and is the most common method of determining approximate age in live cattle.
Cattle, like many animals, start life with baby or milk teeth. From about two years of age these teeth are replaced with permanent teeth. Permanent teeth erupt in pairs starting with the centre pair. A tooth is considered to have ‘erupted’ when it has broken through the gum. A pair is considered to have ‘erupted’ when the first tooth of a given pair has broken through the gum.
The bottom jaw of this heifer only has a row of small teeth, indicating that she is a ‘milk tooth’ animal; likely to be less than two years of age.
The age of an animal is often referred to by the number of permanent teeth. An animal with only milk teeth is called a ‘milk tooth’, an animal with two permanent teeth is a ‘2 tooth’ and so on until they have a full set of eight permanent teeth when they are said to be an ‘8 tooth’ or ‘full mouth’.
A guide for estimating the age (in months) of cattle by dentition
For further details contact,
Ms. B.sowmiya - B.Sc., (Hons) Agriculture and Dr. B. Guna , Associate Professor(Agrl. Extension ). Nalanda College of Agriculture, M.R. Palayam, Tiruchirapalli.
Email : baluguna8789@gmail.com. Phone number :9944641459.
Cattle, like many animals, start life with baby or milk teeth. From about two years of age these teeth are replaced with permanent teeth. Permanent teeth erupt in pairs starting with the centre pair. A tooth is considered to have ‘erupted’ when it has broken through the gum. A pair is considered to have ‘erupted’ when the first tooth of a given pair has broken through the gum.
The bottom jaw of this heifer only has a row of small teeth, indicating that she is a ‘milk tooth’ animal; likely to be less than two years of age.
The age of an animal is often referred to by the number of permanent teeth. An animal with only milk teeth is called a ‘milk tooth’, an animal with two permanent teeth is a ‘2 tooth’ and so on until they have a full set of eight permanent teeth when they are said to be an ‘8 tooth’ or ‘full mouth’.
A guide for estimating the age (in months) of cattle by dentition
| Teeth | Breed | Average age at eruption (months) | Average age at eruption (months) |
| 2 tooth | British cattle Brahman cross | 24 26 | 21–27 23–29 |
| 4 tooth | British cattle Brahman cross | 31 33 | 26–36 28–38 |
| 6 tooth | British cattle Brahman cross | 38 41 | 32–44 35–47 |
| 8 tooth | British cattle Brahman cross | 46 51 | 39–54 43–58 |
For further details contact,
Ms. B.sowmiya - B.Sc., (Hons) Agriculture and Dr. B. Guna , Associate Professor(Agrl. Extension ). Nalanda College of Agriculture, M.R. Palayam, Tiruchirapalli.
Email : baluguna8789@gmail.com. Phone number :9944641459.