In ancient times, the slaughter of cows was banned, so why did the number of cows not explode?

If the slaughtering of pigs had been banned in ancient times, the number of pigs would have "exploded" long ago, but the slaughtering of cows had been banned in ancient times, and the number of cows had been very stable until the beginning of the modern era, when cows could be slaughtered at will, and only then did the number of cows (the number of cattle in the stockpile) begin to increase dramatically, and as of 2021 the global stockpile of beef cattle reached 996 million head. As of 2021, the global inventory of beef cattle reached 996 million head. So why has cattle slaughter been banned in ancient times, and why hasn't the cattle population exploded? Let's chat about this interesting question.

Ancient cattle are to work

If you live in the countryside, you must have such an experience, your own home to raise a few old hens, the old hen began to lay eggs, a day can lay an egg, very happy, I can eat all the time to eat eggs fried rice leeks scrambled eggs, as long as I want to eat, I can change the pattern of eating. But suddenly one day the old hen does not lay eggs, it began to lie down on the nest, in their own nest has not been moving, and this time also want to eat eggs how to do it?

It's very simple, I just need to give this old hen a kick, let it run to the side, and then take all the eggs in his nest, and the old hen will continue to lay eggs on the 2nd day. Normally, an old hen will only stop laying eggs and start hatching chicks when she reaches a sufficient number of eggs in her nest.

But I'm very sorry, I don't need the old hen to hatch chicks right now, so the old hen would never be allowed to lie down. If we think of the old hen as an employee, and the eggs laid by the old hen as the workload of the employee, then it can be understood in this way that the old hen needs to work, so the old hen cannot lie down.

The thing about cows is that they are usually just one in a litter

Then the calf has to grow up for another two years or so, which isn't a very friendly pace for a farming nation. Because people in the old days needed cattle for work, not for meat. Plus, cattle are still a big eater, so if you put them in a poor family, you can't afford to keep them. So in ancient times, the farming people would not raise cattle on a large scale, one is not needed, and the other is that small-scale raising that number is also enough.

But the number of cattle did not grow explosively in the farming nation, if the nomadic people that is another matter. There is a poem "the wind blows the grass low to see cattle and sheep", from this line can be known, as long as the nomadic tribes to give time and grassland, the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of cattle can give you the whole out.

Banning or not banning the slaughtering of cattle has little to do with the growth in the number of cattle

What really matters is the capacity of the environment and the capacity of the market. Also cattle and plow cattle are two different things, not all cattle will become plow cattle. Southern buffalo: female four years old to give birth to, both two years a calf, three years old at the beginning of the first, four years old force healthy before they can go to the field. Bulls, two years old to go to power, three years old to go to the field. From the calf can really grow into a good plowing cow actual probability of less than half, more death from disease, training service accident and use of accident, can live to the old plowing cow less than one-fifth.

Northern cattle: most of the region's yellow cattle small, weak in the real sense of the cattle can do plowing cattle breed is too little, but also Guanzhong Plain, Shandong, Hebei can be some, more places are the main livestock is a donkey, mules and horses are mainly cattle is not a good choice.