• usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.mlOP
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    6 months ago

    In anything more than the extreme short term, the number of creatures being breed ties directly to the demand. They aren’t just breesing them because they feel like it. For instance the US beef herd size has been falling due to the decrease in beef demand year over year

    • WanderingCat@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Demand in the country can fall, but they’ll find somewhere else that will happily import Irish beef to keep the demand there

      • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.mlOP
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        6 months ago

        Even if you replaced it 100% with exports, then domestic demand falls elsewhere in the world from decreased domestic consumption in the country you’re exporting to

    • over_clox@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      It’s just math yo. Maybe it makes more sense if I explain it backwards. Breed less, eat more. Tada, less methane generators.

      • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.mlOP
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        6 months ago

        Breeding fewer cows is going to have to entail reductions in consumption. Less supply in not all that much time. As a society, we’re not going to be able to do both at the same time

        • over_clox@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Have you ever worked on a farm? Cow breeding is easily limited by limiting the number of farmers jerking off bulls.

            • over_clox@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Selective breeding has been going on for thousands of years to get to the modern day cows and bulls we have today. How do you think they extract the bull semen for their selection process? There’s big money in it.

              They basically pick a quality bull which has favorable characteristics, bring him into their breeding barn, put their rubber gloves on, and mount the bull onto an artificial cow. Then the farmer has to convince him to start the deed and guide him into what basically adds up to a cow sized fleshlight.

              One quality load can fertilize hundreds of cows, so yeah there’s lots of money in it. Everything about cow farming is nasty, from start to finish.

              • frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml
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                6 months ago

                Semen isn’t the limiting factor in breeding. You can get 1200 straws from a bull in a day.

                A thousand bulls could in theory breed our enitre national herd (about 7 million) (not recommended; just making the point that síol isn’t the bottleneck; it’s wombs as always)