This Mad Scientist Will Clone 100,000 Cows

The Daily Beast ^ | January 01, 2016 | Abby Haglage

[MeshugeMikey]

This year, a Chinese company plans to open a massive factory to clone 100,000 cows. Just how far will this mass reproductive technology go? Two decades after the birth of Dolly the sheep—the world’s first successfully cloned mammal—the year 2016 will likely see the rise of mass-produced animal clones, thanks to an enterprising and madcap scientist in China.

Sometime in the next year, a company called Boyalife Genomics will open a massive factory in the coastal Chinese city of Tianjin, where it plans to clone 100,000 cattle per year—a way to address the Middle Kingdom’s rising appetite for beef. Eventually, the company aims to clone 1 million cattle a year, as well as other animals like champion racehorses and drug-sniffing dogs.

[MeshugeMikey]

what could possibly....go wrong

[Redcitizen]

McChina. billions served.

[AU72]

Global Warming fanatics won’t care if he can design cows that don’t fart.

[BenLurkin]

Just so long as they aren’t mad cows.

[HereInTheHeartland]

“what could possibly....go wrong”

Not much. Dairy cows have been cloned for quite a few years. It simply produces a copy of the original animal.

[C210N]

what could possibly....go wrong

Cows With Guns

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[Varda]

Cloning cows has been going on for decades. Breeding farm animals has been high tech in the USA for a long time.

[tet68]

No doubt at some time this will solve their female
shortage...

[Publius]

[tet68]

You got it.

[Thibodeaux]

——what could possibly....go wrong——

they could over produce and begin to export the surplus

[Himyar]

I don’t see how cloning cattle on a large scale for commercial purposes would be profitable. Cloning superior breeding stock would be one thing. Cloning cattle for beef would be way too expensive. Given the fact that a lot of countries have banned GMO crops, I can’t see them going for cloned meat.

[conejo99]

Every one of which is susceptible to the same germ. Genetic diversity means that some percentage of the population can probably survive any particular disease.
Even a single superior animal will not be immune (or at least able to live through) every disease.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Sometime in the next year, a company called Boyalife Genomics will open a massive factory in the coastal Chinese city of Tianjin, where it plans to clone 100,000 cattle per year;a way to address the Middle Kingdom's rising appetite for beef. Eventually, the company aims to clone 1 million cattle a year, as well as other animals like champion racehorses and drug-sniffing dogs.

Ok, why?

It is both cheaper and easier to just breed 100,000 cows with AI.

There might be merit to cloning a champion race horse but as they do not even allow AI in horse racing only live covers they would have to change the laws.

As for drug sniffing dogs, do they actually think that training is passed on genetically?

[G Larry]

Well...this gives a new twist to “Why pay for the cow when...?”

[tumblindice]

[fella]

The average cow in the USA needs 30 gallons of clean water a day not to mention feed.

[Myrddin]

Just for reference, the big snow storm that just hit the US southwest killed 30,000 cows in just a couple days.

Click the pic for the article.

[ShasheMac]

“He” has udders.