She’s the world’s most expensive cow, and part of Brazil’s plan to put beef on everyone’s plate

UBERABA, Brazil — Brazil has hundreds of millions of cows, but one in particular is extraordinary. “She’s a complete cow, has all the characteristics that all the proprietors are looking for.” Ney Pereira and his daughter, veterinarian Lorrany Martins, give an interview inside a stable at his farm in Uberaba, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, Friday, April 26, 2024. “The auctions always present the best of what each person has and that spreads to other people, other breeders, and the genetics evolve,” said Lira, who ranches in Brazil’s northeast. “All those are rental bellies,” said Geneal Animal Genetics and Biotechnology’s commercial director, Paulo Cerantola, motioning to a hilltop herd as his truck rumbled along a dirt road. That’s how you feed the world.” Viatina-19’s owner, Pereira, said she gets special treatment to boost egg cell production, but would thrive were she put to pasture — where almost all his elite cattle feed.