means Domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses raised on a farm for food, labor, or profit.

from A plain compound that says exactly what it means: "live" (the breathing, walking kind) plus "stock" (a supply or store of goods on hand). It dates to the early 1500s, when "stock" already carried the sense of accumulated assets — the same root that gave us stockpile and the stock market. So before shares were ever traded on a floor, the original "stock" you held was warm, hungry, and prone to wandering off.