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title: "1.5 Origin of animal breeding: a history of science (2024)"
canonical: "https://wiki.groenkennisnet.nl/space/TAB/270499841/1.5%20Origin%20of%20animal%20breeding%3A%20a%20history%20of%20science%20(2024)"
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## The start in the 18th century

Until 1700 people mated their animals with animals they liked present in the neighbourhood. There was no systematic way of selecting animals for reproduction, based on predefined characteristics that did not change from mating to mating, but remained similar in time. In Europe, the origin of animal breeding lays in the United Kingdom. It was Sir Robert Bakewell (1725 – 1795) who introduced keeping accurate records of pedigree and performance of animals so that objective selection became possible. He mated related animals with similar traits to fix certain characteristics in animals. He also introduced progeny testing: the method of evaluating performance of the first (small) group of progeny and use that information to select the best father of future progeny. He promoted the idea to ‘breed the best to the best’. Bakewell developed the New Leicester sheep from the old Lincolnshire breed. The New Leicester had a good quality fleece and a good fatty shoulder that was popular at the time. Bakewell noticed that Longhorn cattle were growing well and used less feed compared to other cattle. So he developed that further in order to grow meat more efficiently. It is amazing he did this without knowing anything about the principles of genetics.

> Macro (children)