Why do cows have such straight backs (parallel to the ground)? Most other animals don’t seem to…
In: Biology
We have selectively bred cattle for a long time. We have selected cattle with straight backs.
This is reflected in the way cattle are officially judged. The TL:DR would be “so the animal doesn’t waddle when they walk because this can cause the animal to go lame.”
A better explanation from wikipedia
>>As with the shoulder blades, all joints in the back should be level with the spine, from the shoulder blades to the hip and the pins of the cow. However, some cows’ pins do sit slightly lower than the spine. This is acceptable, but it is undesirable for any of the joints to drop off from the spine too much. If joints are set too low from the spine, this will affect the angle of the spine, as well as the angle of the ribs and pelvis, and may cause the animal to walk with a slight waddle. This is not desirable in a beef cow. This can also cause problems with the legs, which means that the hooves do not wear evenly on the ground. This can cause permanent lameness and other conditions at some point in the animal’s life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_judging
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