Inside India's cutting-edge cow 'factory'
Synopsis
High-yield cows are being produced in 'cow factories' with the aim to conserve indigenous varieties via surrogacy and IVF. The aim is to phase out nondescript low-yield varieties and breed indigenous high-yield ones. Dairy farmers are being encouraged to use nondescript varieties as surrogate mothers, and over time replace them with genetically superior 'surrogate offspring'.
Human surrogacy is passé, bovine surrogacy is the in thing. Old, unproductive cows now play surrogate mothers to high-yield milch calves.The new in vitro fertilization (IVF) technique, which is commonly referred to as test tube baby technology, has given a fresh lease of life to unproductive old cows which otherwise used to roam around on streets or would have been driven illegally to slaughter houses. This IVF technology for cattle is rapidly
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