The Belgian Blue is a breed of beef cattle from Belgium. It may also be known as the Race de la Moyenne et Haute Belgique.
Alternative names for this breed include Belgian Blue-White; Belgian White and Blue Pied; Belgian White Blue; Blue; and Blue Belgian.
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The sculpted, heavily muscled look is known as “double muscling”, and is a trait shared by the Piedmontes breed. They are named for their blue-grey mottled hair colour, although it can vary from white to black.
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Many are convinced that farmers have been injecting the ‘bodybuilder bulls’ with steroids sparking a furious row online. It comes after Knickers, a 6ft 4ins steer from Australia, hit the headlines for being ‘too big to to be ʙᴜᴛᴄʜᴇʀᴇᴅ’.
While Knickers achieved fame because of his height, these Belgian Blues boast bulging muscles all over their bodies.
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The Belgian Blue has a natural ᴍᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ in the myostatin gene which codes for the protein, myostatin (“myo” meaning muscle and “statin” meaning stop). Myostatin is a protein that ɪɴʜɪʙɪᴛs muscle development. This ᴍᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ also interferes with fat deposition, resulting in very lean meat.
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The truncated myostatin gene is unable to function in its normal capacity, resulting in accelerated lean muscle growth. Muscle growth is due primarily to physiological changes in the animal’s muscle cells (fibers) from hypertrophy to a hyperplasia mode of growth.
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This particular type of growth is seen early in the fetus of a pregnant dam, which results in a calf that is born with two times the number of muscle fibers at birth than a calf with no myostatin gene ᴍᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ. In addition, a newborn double-muscled calf’s birth weight is significantly greater than that of a normal calf.
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Double-muscled cows can experience dystocia (a difficult birth), even when bred to normal beef bulls or dairy bulls, because of a narrower birth canal.
In addition to the dam’s reduced ᴘᴇʟᴠɪᴄ dimensions, the calf’s birth weight and width are increased, making ᴘᴀʀᴛᴜʀɪᴛɪᴏɴ harder. The neonatal calf is so large that Cᴀᴇsᴀʀᴇᴀɴ sections are routinely scheduled for breeders.
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The Belgian Blue breed, for these characteristics, has excellent yields for the production of meat with exceptional development of the muscular masses. Sʟᴀᴜɢʜᴛᴇʀ ʏɪᴇʟᴅ is quite high with percentages ranging between 65 and 70%.
So, the bulls of this breed are also used for industrial crossbreeding. As for milk production, today it is lower and closer to the needs of calf feeding. In general it is also a robust breed that adapts to many situations and with a mild temperament.
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As for the quality of the meat, while not showing any particular differences in flavor, it has demonstrated the superiority of the roast for its tenderness. These results have thus encouraged the use of Blanc-Bleu Belga in cross-breeding with zebu in Brazil and Argentina to produce softer meat.
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