# Cannibal cows?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibal-cows/764600
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 31, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibal-cows/764600 "2016-08-31T21:06:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibal-cows/764600/1 "2016-08-31T21:06:03Z")
I came across this statement: ‘[T]hey feed cattle pulverized other cattle ofal [sic] with antibiotics in most of the cattle industry.’
I _think_ I’ve heard of chickens being fed chicken byproducts, but I have not heard of cattle being fed cattle byproducts. Is the statement I read true, or false?
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### Author:  [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibal-cows/764600/2 "2016-08-31T21:27:42Z")
Not so much anymore after the outbreaks of [mad cow disease](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy).
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### Author:  [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2016, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibal-cows/764600/3 "2016-09-01T12:29:45Z")
True.
Meat & bone meal and tallow can be used in feed additives for dairy & beef cattle, though typically vegetable protein meals are adequate for the requirements and more economic.
You can get a good 12-14% crude protein, 10MJ/kg DM cattle feed without using meat meal and it’s effect on palatability can be an issue.
For the 18-20% CP and significantly higher energy feeds required by broilers and growing pigs to formulate rations **without** meat and offal by-products can be prohibitively expensive.