In the beginning, God created the cow to eat the grass and other forages that man was not
able to eat or digest. Although I wasn't around at that time, I'm sure God's original cow was very
efficient at converting low quality forages into milk and meat. Because of her unique four-stomach
digestive system, she was able to eat and digest plants that could not be utilized by man or most
other animals. I don't know what color she was and I don't know what shape or size she was, but I
do know that she had the genetic ability to adapt to many different environments.
When God created man he gave him dominion over the cattle (Genesis 1:26). Over the
years, man has been successful in populating most of the earth with descendents of God's original
cow. When placed in a new environment, these cows were able to adapt and change by "natural"
selection into the most efficient animal for their new surroundings. Those that could not adapt
did not survive.
Man, in all his wisdom, eventually realized that he could create the cow of his dreams
through "artificial" selection. Color, size and shape suddenly became more important than
efficiency and adaptability. Right from the start, different men had different ideas about what the
perfect cow should look like. Some wanted them red, and some wanted them black. Some wanted
to produce draft animals, while others selected strictly for milk or beef production. These men
became the original seedstock producers — and the race was on to create the perfect breed.
In order to preserve the traits they deemed to be most important, these breeders found it
necessary to artificially change the cow's environment. They did this by providing the cow with
extra feed and care. She was no longer required to survive strictly on the forage resources found
within her environment. Man finally succeeded in producing cows with the preferred color, size
and shape — but they were not as efficient or as profitable as their ancestors had been.
Back to Basics. To be profitable, today's cattlemen need to get back to basics! We need
to produce cows that fit our environment, instead of artificially changing the environment to fit
our cows! Cows must be environmentally adapted to efficiently convert our available forage
resources into beef — with a minimum amount of inputs. Profit is measured by subtracting our
expenses from our income. It is affected very little by the color and/or breed of our cattle.
~Kit Pharo
Note: I edited out the last paragraph as it was promotional.
One thing we have to remember is that we work in Nature's world...when we stray too far from Nature's way, it cost money.
