Mark Thorson > wrote:

> No, like humans who are predominately right-handed,
> cattle are predominately right-hooved. This gives the
> right loin and shell muscle more exercise, making both
> of them tougher.

A very similar theory was posted some eight years ago in this very space
by the late Cuchulain (Hound). He postulated that cattle are
right-"handed" and stand up with their right side first, thereby
rendering the left side more tender. I replied as follows, drawing on a
memory of a very important old article:

This is a matter which definitely bears more investigation. Research
into the bovine physiology has been going nowhere since the last
breakthrough occurred in 1927, as reported in 'Nature' by P. Jordan and
R. Kronig in their article on the movement of the bovine lower jaw in
the process of ruminating. According to their research, the movement is
neither purely horizontal, not purely vertical, but turns out to be a
superposition of these periodical movements, with such phase transitions
as to result in a pure rotation. Now, rotation, according to the
article, can occur in either direction, so that there may exist left-
and right-rotating bovines. An inspection of a number of bovines in a
Denmark province yielded 55% of right-rotating and the rest
left-rotating. The authors speculate on the probabilty of the true
ratio being 1:1.

I wonder if the direction of jaw rotation may actually determine the
side with which the cattle stand up first. Or the other way around.

Victor