Cloning Cows From Steaks (and Other Ways of Building Better Cattle)

Can animal geneticists breed—or clone—a cow that will taste great and have a smaller environmental hoofprint too?

The clones were so glad to see us, out on the frozen pasture, that they almost wouldn't let us out of the pickup. I had to shove one aside with the door to get out. Kelly Jones had warned me they weren't shy, the way most beef cattle are. Since they weighed close to half a ton and had horns, that was good to know.

It was January in the Texas Panhandle—flat land, big sky, bitter day. On our way out to see the cloned heifers, Jones had stopped to break the ice on some water troughs. The Nance Ranch, on the outskirts of Canyon, is a research facility belonging to West Texas A&M University (WTAMU), where Jones is a

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