Zakah on Cattle After Replacing Some of Them Before the Completion of the Lunar Year

The questioner:
The Honorable Shaykh, a man has two cows and five bulls. Before the completion of the lunar year, he sold the bulls and bought ten cows in their place, so the total became thirty cows. Does the owner owe zakah?

The Shaykh:
This depends on his intention. If he intends them for sale and purchase, they are trade goods, and he pays zakah on their value when the lunar year is completed, just as he pays zakah on trade goods. But if he intends them for milk, butter, and offspring, then if they graze in the pasture for most of the lunar year and he does not feed them, zakah is due on them when the lunar year is completed because they are grazing cattle. If he feeds them for most of the lunar year, there is no zakah on them because they are not grazing cattle. Zakah is only obligatory on grazing cattle. If he feeds them for most of the lunar year, they are not grazing cattle, and there is no zakah on them, provided he intends them to remain for milk and offspring.

The questioner:
If Allah wills.

The Shaykh:
Huh? Yes.

Another questioner:
If some of them, I mean, are permanent, and some are known, of course.

The Shaykh:
If some are grazing and some are fed, one looks at the grazing ones: do they reach the nisab (minimum threshold) or not? If they reach the nisab, they are subject to zakah. And if they

Another questioner:
And we mention from them.

The Shaykh:
Yes, indeed, from them. And if they do not reach the nisab, there is no zakah on them. Yes. This is trade. If he intends them for trade, they do not become grazing cattle. If he intends them for trade, they become goods, not grazing cattle, even if they graze in the pasture. Yes.