Naming Cows: Why Farmers Don't Name the Steers

Naming cows on a beef farm: why farmers don't name the steers, and what happens when a young cousin names the new calves anyway.

 · 3 min read

Asked which animal on the farm has a name it should not have, Gray Shipley said it has become a point of contention lately.

Naming cows on a beef cattle farm: not the steers, and there is a reason farmers don't name them. Breeding cows are often named, legends like Korea earn a name, and pets are always named. Steers get an ear tag number. Decide first whether the animal is staying.

The farm has started its breeding herd back up, so there are baby calves again. A young cousin has decided he wants to name each calf as it is born. At last count about three of them had names.

“And I've continued to tell everybody that it's not going to end well when you're naming the steers who are going to end up in the feeding program.”

Gray Shipley
Hear Gray say it, 12 seconds.
Word for word, as recorded

And I've continued to tell everybody that it's not going to end well when you're naming the steers who are going to end up in the feeding program.

“And there's a reason that we don't name them.”

Gray Shipley
Hear Gray say it, 2 seconds.
Word for word, as recorded

And there's a reason that we don't name them.

Why farmers don't name the steers

A steer is a young male raised for beef. On a beef farm, the steers are the animals that leave. A name makes that harder, for the children who chose it most of all. So most cattle farms know their animals by an ear tag number, and keep names for the animals that stay.

Which cows do get names

  • The breeding cows. A mother cow can stay on a farm for many years, and families often name the ones they know best.
  • The memorable ones. Some animals earn a name by personality. On this farm the most famous is a cow from the 1950s called Korea, and Mean Cow explains how she got it.
  • The pets. The farm's dog and goats all have names. Pet Goats introduces Mr. Bo Jangles.
Where cow names come from, if the animal is staying: the weather on the day it was born, a marking or a color, a place close to home, or a person it reminds you of. Most cattle farms use ear tag numbers.

Good names for cows, if you must

If you keep a family milk cow or a pet steer that will never be sold, name away. Farm families tend to borrow from what is around them: the weather on the day the calf was born, a color or marking, a place, or a person the animal reminds them of. Just decide first whether this one is staying.

A Shipley Farms beef share box
From the herd
1/8 Beef Share

The easiest way to try beef raised here: one eighth of an animal.

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The Sunday Roast Box from Shipley Farms
For the table
The Sunday Roast Box

A roast feeds a table and asks very little of you once it is cooking.

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About this guide

Written at Shipley Farms in Vilas, North Carolina: a family cattle farm raising and dry-aging beef in the Appalachian Mountains, now in its fifth generation. No shortcuts since 1872.

Every quote on this page is Gray Shipley talking, the man who runs this farm. He recorded these answers himself, at the farm, in the autumn of 2026. The play button under each quote is that recording, exactly as he said it, and the words under it are a word-for-word transcript. In the written quotes, hesitations are trimmed so they read on the page. Nothing else is added or reworded, except where Gray revised his own words in review.

Reviewed 9 November 2026.

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