Why do Mongolia donate sheep and Xinjiang donate cattle?

As if to prove the excellent quality and rich products of local pastures, Mongolia and Xinjiang Autonomous Region donated a large number of mutton and beef to the epidemic areas in Hubei within one week.

But why did Xinjiang only donate cattle and Mongolia only donated sheep? Both? See cattle and sheep when the wind blows? What prompted the diversion of cattle and sheep in northwest China?

No: 1- a cold biological knowledge that many people don't know: cattle are cattle's animals, and sheep are also cattle's animals. Therefore, cattle and sheep raised by humans are of the same kind, and their genetic relationship is closer than that of humans and most monkeys.

In a way, sheep are actually weak cows.

Being weak means being domesticated more easily. In addition to being domesticated as a tool and becoming a living dog, domestic sheep may be the first meat livestock domesticated by human beings.

Although pigs have been domesticated for tens of thousands of years, there is still no reproductive isolation between domestic pigs and wild boars: it is often reported in public news that a wild boar jumped into the pigsty in the dark, and a few months later, farmers' families were extremely happy and their piglets were alive and kicking.

On the contrary, breeding sheep, such as wild sheep, hyenas, antelopes and so on. There is reproductive isolation, even if it can give birth to offspring, it is as infertile as tigon and mule.

This is enough to prove that the history of sheep domestication is longer than that of pigs.

Interestingly, the area where sheep were domesticated first was West Asia, and the area where pigs were domesticated first was East Asia. It is these two places that gave birth to the two great civilizations of mankind. Apart from completely different religious systems and language systems, grapes and oranges are the two most widely planted fruits in the world today. Wheat and rice, the two crops with the largest yield; Sheep and pigs, the two oldest meat livestock, originated in West Asia and East Asia respectively.

The source of civilization is also the source of food.

No:2 According to the normal development, both sheep and pigs will spread and develop in their respective regions, forming a systematic diet.

But the growth of food pedigree is far from simple. About 6,000 years ago, humans began to domesticate the stronger relatives of sheep? Bison.

Compared with sheep with docile personality and short breeding cycle, the cost performance of domesticated cattle as food is too low. In the Stone Age when there were only bone spears and slingshots, primitive people even had to pay the price of their lives to capture the gregarious, aggressive and grumpy bison.

But the power of cattle is too tempting for human beings. As we all know, the cost of cultivated land is much higher than that of cultivated land. In the early days of civilization, the large population, wars between tribes, the growth of tribal forces and the consumption of privileged classes all depended on more cultivated land. Cattle have the function of helping human beings to open up wasteland, which is an attribute that pigs, sheep and horses do not have.

Throughout Eurasia, there are traces of domesticated cattle. In America, until Columbus landed at the end of 15, all the cattle were still in the wild: because of the fine climate, plus potatoes and sweet potatoes with output several times that of rice and wheat, it was enough to feed many Indians? There is no need to involve cattle in farming.

Bullfighting is still an important folk custom in western European countries. Aside from its religious cloak, its essence reflects the ancient ancestors' fear of domesticating bison and their worship of brave domesticated heroes.

NO: 33 For the ancient people in China, cattle and sheep were rare and precious meat, but the ways of refining them were quite different.

The essence of mutton comes from scarcity and high price, mainly from the trade with nomadic people in the north and northwest. Of course, sheep can also be raised in the mainland, but sheep need to be stocked and are not suitable for captivity. For a farming country with an inch of land and gold, a large area of grassland is too extravagant.

Before Mongolia and Xinjiang were completely incorporated into Chinese territory in Qing Dynasty, mutton in eighteen provinces of Han Dynasty was almost monopolized by nobles, and it was the endorsement of all good things in the eyes of literati. This is from the Chinese word sheep? Fresh? Beautiful? Okay？ When you wait for the word of God, you will see righteousness.

But the essence of cattle comes from government opposition and legal prohibition. Compared with the contribution of farming, the value of cattle in grain is really insignificant. Therefore, it is forbidden to slaughter cattle in China in all previous dynasties. Old, sick and disabled cows can be eaten, but they taste bad. In that era when there was no traceability system for ingredients, it was impossible to verify the origin of beef after it was cooked in vegetables. The outlaw in the Water Margin? Two catties of beef and a pot of good wine? , can represent the real life of the people at the bottom of ancient China wandering on the edge of the imperial law.

In the West, the livestock structure before the Middle Ages was similar to that of China. Sheep and pigs are the main meats. Mutton is popular in sparsely populated areas with abundant grassland resources, and pork is popular in densely populated areas with developed agriculture. So today, traditional agricultural areas such as central and northern Italy, northeastern Spain, southern France and southern Germany are still used to eating ham and salty elbows cured with pork.

However, there are subtle differences between eastern and western attitudes towards beef. There is no Confucian education in the west that respects people and values soil. Where are the farm tools? The understanding of cattle will not rise to the height of religion and imperial law. Nobles occasionally kill a cow to taste the steak when they have surplus food at home.

It is conceivable that high-protein beef brings rich meat flavor, is more chewy than pork and mutton, and has no peculiar smell of mutton, and is quickly regarded as the most distinguished meat by European elites? This can be seen from the fact that the names of famous people such as Wellington, chateaubriand and Stroganov are used as prefixes for beef dishes.

In most cases, the tip of the tongue of the elite can often drive the aesthetics of the whole society. The admiration for beef in the Middle Ages in the West can basically be compared with Dongpo Meat, Taibai Duck and kung pao chicken in China.

Dramatically, in the 14 and 15 centuries, the western world suffered two major events that affected the development of beef: the black death and the great voyage. The former wiped out one third of the population in Europe, while the latter sent a large number of Europeans to explore and colonize all over the world.

The decrease of population density makes the labor force engaged in farming insufficient. /kloc-Around the 0/5th century, the largest conversion of farmland to grazing in human history took place in Europe. Changing grain to grass has fed more livestock, and beef, which is highly respected by Europeans, has become the ultimate winner of this movement.

No:4 The drastic changes in the Middle Ages also caused the breeding of cattle breeds in the East and the West to go their separate ways: the western cattle breeds are mainly edible, and the cattle breeds represented by Angus cattle are mostly fattened with grains, which are rich in oil, soft and tender and suitable for frying; Cattle in the east are mainly used for cultivated land, and eating is only an additional attribute. Cattle breeds represented by yellow cattle and buffalo mostly feed on grass, and the proportion of lean meat is high. It takes a long time to stew, or cut into thin slices, stir-fry or rinse raw to get a good taste.

Since modern times, Japan, the first country to leave Asia and enter Europe, has also started to raise beef cattle specially for eating according to the western model, and in just a few decades, it has cultivated the world-famous beef cattle "shine on you".

This just shows that the wisdom of the oriental people in diet is not inferior to that of Europe and America.

The development path of sheep is much simpler than that of cattle: mutton can be eaten, goat's milk can be drunk, sheepskin wool can be used for textile and clothing, decorations and building houses. Sheep intestine was the most important flexible material in the world before the invention of rubber, and it was widely used to make strings, bows and arrows, and even condoms.

Although the smell of mutton makes people who can accept it far worse than beef, the rich output of mutton is still the most important property of nomadic tribes in Central and North Asia who lack products. Especially in Mobei Mongolian Plateau, where the land is barren and there are almost no farming conditions, the existence of cattle is redundant compared with that of sheep, and it can even be used as a means of transportation: the feeding cycle is not as fast as that of sheep, the fertility is not as high as that of sheep, the meat yield after grazing is not as high as that of sheep, and the by-products are not as rich as sheep.

This is why Mongolia generously donated tens of thousands of sheep, but never mentioned cattle.

On the contrary, in southern Mongolia, which is rich in aquatic plants, that is, Inner Mongolia, as well as many places in Xinjiang and Tibet, besides animal husbandry, there are still some land suitable for planting drought-resistant and cold-resistant wheat and highland barley. Cows and yaks have their place in such a place. Therefore, these areas have preserved the animal husbandry structure of mixed breeding of cattle and sheep, even with cattle as the main and sheep as the auxiliary.

Similarly, as a big animal husbandry country, Australia and New Zealand also have sheep on the grasslands, but there are not as many lamb chops, roast lamb legs and mutton soup on the dining table and in supermarkets as in Mongolia. Is it based on this logic that people still mainly eat beef? Mutton mutton is not everyone's favorite. In the case of abundant natural resources, it is far less than beef. But even if only wool, skin and milk are provided, the fare for raising sheep is worth it.

No:5 In addition to the natural environment and historical evolution, Mongolian sheep breeding depends entirely on delicious taste.

People who are not used to the smell of southern goats will be amazed at the first bite of Mongolian sheep: delicious; Cai Lan's faith? What's the smell of mutton and women? Most southerners will find Mongolian sheep tasteless.

In fact, the flavor and unique smell of mutton come from short-chain fatty acids in mutton fat. The amount of this fatty acid is closely related to the breed of sheep, the age of sheep, feed, male and female, castration or not.

Mongolian sheep, native to North Asia, is a variety with extremely low short-chain fatty acids. One of the excellent sheep breeds recognized by China: Ningxia Yanchitan sheep, which was brought back from Lake Baikal when Su Wu was herding sheep. Legend is half true and half false, but Tan sheep is a typical Mongolian sheep.

In addition, a noteworthy phenomenon is that the poorer the pasture, the smaller the smell of mutton. Some people think that the soil salinity in arid areas is high, and saline-alkali vegetation such as Allium mongolicum Regel, Suaeda salsa, Glycyrrhiza uralensis and Sophora alopecuroides grows. After eating saline-alkali grass, sheep can effectively remove fatty acids with unpleasant smell.

Another evidence is that Hainan East Goat is one of the few sheep in the south, because it feeds on tropical alfalfa born on the island? Like Suaeda salsa on the Gobi Desert, it is also an alkali-tolerant plant.

Therefore, although Inner Mongolia mutton is famous all over the world, many people always think that the desolate and barren Inner Mongolia mutton is more delicious. Invisibly, it also strengthened the Mongolian people's pursuit of shepherd's career.

Delicious food is not only the source of history, religion and culture, but also the simplest and most direct motivation for human beings to choose food.