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Article: How now, beef cow? (virtues of various beef cattle breeds)(part 1)
- Article from:
- Agricultural Research
- Article date:
- November 1, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 U.S. Government Printing Office. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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How Now, Beef Cow?
In the beginning, there were Longhorns, and they were tough.
Tough in more ways than one: Able to fend for themselves in the wild, equipped as they were by nature with dual daggers, and sinewy enough to survive the dusty treks between distant water holes on the American range.
Described by one observer as "meatless, milkless, and murderous," these hooved ghosts from the days of Spanish conquistadors nonetheless provided the foundation for the infant U.S. commercial cattle industry's first exploration of the joys of heterosis.
Known more simply as hybrid vigor, heterosis is the biological phenomenon that allows ...