A world without cows

I think that the ramifications would be as follows:

There are no cows.

Without bovine, people would just find the next best thing, which is probably goats and/or pigs if you're sticking with traditional western farm animals. There are multitudes of animals that could be domesticated and raised in their place.

 

Horses and donkeys would be your big draft animals. Goats would be your dairy providers, and with sheep and pigs would be your primary sources of red meat.

On the subject of Guns, Germs and Steel, I would recommend against reading it without looking into the criticisms of said book. I say this because it is very popular among laypeople, who often see it as fact or very close to it, while experts have some serious issues with it.

 

CGP Grey does a really good video of this on Youtube (ostensibly its about why Europe had some virulent and deadly diseases, but it also comments on draft animals; video 2 is more focused on draft animals)

Americapox: The Missing Plague - YouTube

Basically, he says that bovine are perfect because they're slow herbivores who have decent temperments. There weren't really any such creatures in the Americas.

 

That is the biggest advantage of cows, contrary to horses or even goats, are much more manageable. If you have had goats (or been around a petting zoo) you would know that they are always trying to escape (keeping goats requires a constant effort contrary to cows who like to stay where you put them. And because goats are much smaller, your effort/benefit balance is seriously changed).

Horses don't produce as much milk, and a new-born horse needs more protein to thrive than a calf (meaning you can't start taking the milk from the mare intermediately or you'll starved the baby)... so there is a reason why cows are the preferred meat producer of the world. By the way, goat meat is also a good source of protein.

 

If you're messing with history or the natural world, you could make up an alternative species (such as unusually large, placid goats). Or how about llamas? They're a species of camel -- maybe in your alternate history, llamas have been bred for milk production.

 

I strongly second this sentiment... It's a good book, but certainly not without inaccuracies.
I approach it the same way I would approach Howard Zinn's work; there is some incongruousness, but for the most part, it proves to be an interesting concept.

 

There's always sheep milk and sheep cheese, like feta and Roquefort. Not to mention wool, and meat from sheep.

 

I don't think that you need cows to make Kraft American cheese.

 

Go Clockwork Orange style and have the characters all drink human milk.

 

One of the main reasons why several societies did not develop technologically was the lack of protein in their diets (I'm not talking only of animal protein, but plant as well). When getting enough food to survive is difficult (protein is a concentrate source of energy, takes longer to digest but gives you more buck for your efforts) there's no chance you're getting creative enough to invent things. So, if you are going to remove cows but want a thriving society, make sure to give your people a good grain to survive (wheat, corn, oats). Otherwise they wouldn't have enough free time to do anything but produce food.

Something interesting fact you may also consider, in Africa, several tribes harvest blood from their animals as an additional source of protein. Not killing the animal, just a little cut, a cup of blood for breakfast, then patch the goat and ready to go.

 

Allow me to respectfully disagree.

It strikes me that the "the world is this way because I want it that way" approach misses two important factors.

The first is that fiction writing should be about the story and the world, to a greater or lessor extent should serve the story. If the process of world building, cow eliminating or purple mountain making is simply an exercise is self pleasuring whimsy or a reflection of an author's odd bias then it doesn't help the process of building a story that means something or says something. I see many people get too wrapped up in world building or magic system creation and they end up neglecting the story and the characters the things readers really care about.

The second issue is that somewhere in the process the reader has to come into it. Writing can be thought of as a partnership between the reader and the writer. You need to respect your reader and hopefully entertain them or make them think so they get some value out of the relationship. As a potential reader, even if you absolutely cannot force yourself to put a bovine in your world, please don't waste my time with an in story explanation for that choice or bore me with the ramifications. I don't need explanations for what is simply an expression of an odd author bias, it really just kind of wastes my time.

 

This is really good advice and we should all remember it