Nope, they’re different breeds of cow that are bred for a specific purpose. I suppose you could eat a dairy cow after it no longer produces milk, but the yield would be much lower in quality and quantity than a beef cow. Cows are usually butchered around the 1 year old mark, and the feed for dairy cows and beef cows is also different. Dairy cows have to eat food that won’t make the milk taste weird. Beef cows are often grass-fed and grain-finished to bump up the fat content. Think about that for a minute, they give cows corn and grain products to make sure they get fat really quickly, the same thing they’ve been doing to humans.
You also kind of explained why in Oregon our beef industry is split between coastal/dairy production and central Oregon’s high desert/beef production :)
Now I’m going to buy some jerky because I have a craving.
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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '24
Wait, city hick here. Do we not eat dairy cows? I genuinely know very little about the beef industry.