While watching the Triple Crown races this year it has occurred to me that in spite of all the money invested in horse racing, the horses haven't been getting any faster over the decades. Secretariat foaled in 1970 is still the fastest racehorse of all time. It seems that race horse owners are spending millions of dollars to stand still.
I have seen similar trends within cattle as well. All that the frame race has done is to make big cows that are ultimately less efficient. And know to correct the error, we are know breeding little bulls to huge cows. We have it backwards.
On top of this, we have created a dependence upon modern pharmaceuticals to keep our cattle healthy. With the new tools that we have unfit animals are now being propagated because they never had the opportunity to get sick.
Such a penetrating observation. One wonders how cattle managed to survive until the mid 20th century without a massive programme of bTB testing, culling and movement restrictions. Farmers bearing the brunt, but a positive consequence is the employment of large numbers of bureaucrats to manage these policies.