Yep, I had to listen to a lot of silly folks in the Seattle area refer to cattle as cows most of my childhood. As far as me and grandad were concerned, you called them cattle (or beef once you dropped them off at the slaughterhouse) in general. In specific, a female that has not been mated is a heifer, one that is calved is a cow. A male that has been castrated is called a steer, one that still has his goods is called a bull. A young one is called a calf (or veal at the slaughterhouse), and a not so youg one is sometimes called a yearling. Out at the feedlot we didn't say "that female cow" or "that male cow" cuz that was just plain silly, unless the bull had a pink ribbon around his neck and smelled of something other than bull. Some southern folk would politely refer to them as bovines, but that was way too proper for feedlot work. If they were range cattle, some old timers would call them "doegies".
Kinda funny, but since you mentioned it, there isn't a singular term for cattle is there, unless you use cow, which just don't sound right. I never thought about it like that before.
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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
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