The Right Cow

Cattle are considered to be well attuned to our modern beef industry and we only need to breed the right bull to a cow for profit. Included in this theory is adding all the necessary inputs recommended by every magazine you pick up. This has been the typical system for 40 years, but it doesn’t consider the thousands of years of natural selection that got cattle to where they are now.  This selection did not include our modern concepts, such as large birth weights, big weaning weights, heavy milking, body size not in keeping with environment, skeletal structure by show ring judges, and other illogical traits. Cattle, like any other wild animal, had only two purposes, and that was to reproduce and survive. That is all. These two, with natural culling, would ensure the species persistence for millenniums. This was dependant on animals with certain mutations that would allow them to survive with changing environments. Those unable to change fell out, ending their line of descent. Time also brought an end to lines of cattle with defects that interfered with day to day survival such as fertility, calving, travel, poor udders, prolapse, lack of parasite and disease resistance, and anything else that was detrimental for the species. These traits were deleted by strict natural culling. Some by not breeding, others by death. This continued until man stepped in and decided which animals were best in his judgment. You know the rest of the story. We are now at a point when producers