fun fact thread (#4 - belgian blue and butchering pregnant cows)

[no_rules_just_play]

#4

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

(click to show/hide)

Two things today, I'll first start with the picture. This is a Belgian Blue bull, known for it's 'double-muscling'. The double-muscling phenotype is a heritable condition which results in the increased number of muscle fibers (hyperplasia) rather than the normal enlargement of individual muscle fibers (hypertrophy).
Anti-GMO websites will often use pics from this breed with as title: 'GMO gone wrong' or you might have been told they got hormone injections all day. Both claims are absolutely wrong because the Belgian Blue is actually the results of selective breeding and has been around since the 1950's.

Now also on the topic of cattle:

Cows are often intentionally impregnated and butchered before the birth of their young(s). This maynsound horrible, but it actually is a very common way to get more money for the meat. In fact, as long as the young hasn't been birthed yet, it's value is zero (nada); it even is a risk because the mother may die.
At the end of the pregnancy, cows are figuratively speaking (just like humans) 'hormone bombs'. Now you might think hormones aren't allowed in meat, but actually this doesn't count for natural hormones. Because of these hormones, the muscles of the mother animal will retain a lot of water, which makes them much heavier and thus they will cost more (even though your steak will immediatelly shrink when you heat it).
The second reason why they are butchered before the partus is because pregnant cows will not allow a bull to mount them, they will step away. Where another cow would stand still and get quite a few bruises from the extremely heavy male (pic semi related, belgian blues usually are impregnsted by artificial insemination). These bruises lower the quality of the meat a lot and thus will be prevented by impregnating the cows so both the females and males stay away from eachother.

Apologies for the shitty text, I write everything from my phone.

[Zhyang]

bump


Facebook founders Zuckerberg and Saverin are jews ( jewish religion..no offence)