Livestock are the animals a farmer keeps and uses — cows and cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, and sometimes horses. People keep them for meat, milk, wool, or to sell. Wild animals are not livestock. Pets are not livestock either: a farm dog is still a dog. Plants are crops, not livestock. Though actually the tidy farm word is a little narrower than the picture in your head. Many farmers and official papers keep chickens, ducks, and other birds in a separate group called poultry, and they do not always call those birds livestock. Everyday English is looser and often lumps the hens in. The word is uncountable: you say livestock or some livestock, not a livestock and not livestocks. It is a farm and news word, a little cooler than “farm animals.” You meet it in stories about disease, trade, and the countryside.