Beauty or Statistics : : Practice and Science in Dutch Livestock Breeding, 1900–2000 / / Bert Theunissen.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2020 English
• VerfasserIn: Theunissen, Bert,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (288 p.) :; 24 b&w illustrations

In the 1970s, scientists claimed that farm animal breeding was finally evolving from an art into a science. In their view, the switch to scientific breeding was as inevitable as the ongoing process of agricultural modernization. However, the art-to-science scenario is too simplistic to do justice to the complex dynamic that characterized the transformation of the field. The livestock breeds that take centre stage in this book – dairy cattle, chickens, pigs, sheep, and horses – were products of the twentieth century. The methods used by breeders to improve their animals, however, were much older. Tracing the history of practical stockbreeding, the role of Mendelism in scientific breeding, and the emergence of quantitative genetics, Beauty or Statistics shows that the story of the scientific modernization of livestock breeding can be more fruitfully analyzed from the perspective of changing cultures of breeding, taking practical, commercial, normative, and aesthetic considerations into account.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Breeding for nobility or for production? friesian dairy cattle -- 2. “The most efficient chickens in the world” -- 3. Breeding a pig for all parties -- 4. Just not like any other sheep breed: the texel -- 5. From farm horse to riding horse: the dutch warmbloods -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Sources -- Bibliography -- Index