Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ethbr1 654 days ago
The east and southeast don't have many ultra-long-lived tree species, outside of cypresses [0].

I think most oaks top out ~100 years and pines ~200. Not as much slow-growth, live-forever stuff.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxodium_distichum

1 comments

Oaks easily go to 500y, sometimes up to 1000!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak

I suppose they are the exception tho since 500 year old oaks are likely to be famous. Airlie Oak in Wilmington NC is one I know of.

https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/2009/06/13/airlie-...

Right! I guess they are exceptions because we cut them before eldery, not because biological reasons. Cows older than 4yo are an exception because we slaughter most of them before but they could live 5 times more.
Is that true?

I thought super-long-lived trees tended to have special biological optimizations to persist over centuries.

E.g. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/shirley/sec6.ht...

> Cows older than 4yo are an exception because we slaughter most of them before

Huh? A heifer generally won't have her first calf before two years of age. If you are only getting two productive years out of your typical cow, you're doing something horribly wrong.

Right, it's more 4/5 years

Calf 3-5 months Heifer 8-10 months milk cow 4-5 years Bull 18-20 months

https://www.swissveg.ch/life-expectancy?language=en

Looks close to US ranch:

> Meat or beef cows live for 1.5-2 years in the commercial beef industry. However, the natural life of beef cattle is between 15-20 years. Heifers and cows (female cattle) often live for between 5-6 years as they breed to produce the next generation of beef cattle.

https://ohthatschelsey.com/how-long-does-a-cow-live/#:~:text....

Todays milk caws are bred for producing a LOT of milk (30/60L/day), in comparaison those not bred for that produce 4L/day. However this quantity does not keep vealing after vealing and they became unprofitable soon.

Beef cows live for 1.5-2 years, while simultaneously also living for 5-6 years? The claims keep getting stranger and stranger.