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Beauty or Statistics: Practice and Science in Dutch Livestock Breeding, 1900–2000 PDF

285 Pages·2020·9.299 MB·English
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BEAUTY OR STATISTICS Practice and Science in Dutch Livestock Breeding, 1900–2000 Beauty or Statistics Practice and Science in Dutch Livestock Breeding, 1900–2000 BERT THEUNISSEN With the collaboration of Steven van der Laan, Jesper Oldenburger, and Liesbeth van der Waaij UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London © University of Toronto Press 2020 Toronto Buffalo London utorontopress.com Printed in the U.S.A. ISBN 978-1-4875-0700-8 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-4875-3539-1 (EPUB) ISBN 978-1-4875-3538-4 (PDF) Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Title: Beauty or statistics : practice and science in Dutch livestock breeding, 1900–2000 / Bert Theunissen ; with the collaboration of Steven van der Laan, Jesper Oldenburger, and Liesbeth van der Waaij. Names: Theunissen, Bert, 1955– author. Description: Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190204605 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190204664 | ISBN 9781487507008 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781487535384 (PDF) | ISBN 9781487535391 (EPUB) Subjects: LCSH: Livestock – Breeding – Netherlands – History – 20th century. | LCSH: Livestock – Netherlands – History – 20th century. Classification: LCC SF105.25.N4 T44 2019 | DDC 636.08/2 – dc23 University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario. Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xi Introduction 3 1 Breeding for Nobility or for Production? Friesian Dairy Cattle 14 The Breeders Get Organized 15 Type and Tuberculosis 17 The Moral Economy of Breeding 22 Bloodlines and Purity 25 Scientific Breeding 28 Nobility or Production? 34 Entrepreneurship 44 Indexes 48 Holsteinization 51 Market and Moral Economy 59 2 “The Most Efficient Chickens in the World” 63 From Side Business to Mainstay 64 Hybrid Breeding 69 Hy-Line and Hendrix Genetics 75 From Purebreds to First-Generation Crossbreds 80 Industrialization 82 Developments in Breeding 86 Chickens Are Not Peas 90 vi Contents 3 Breeding a Pig for All Parties 94 Testing for Productive Traits 95 Minkema’s Breeding Plan 98 AI in Pigs 103 Hybrid Pig Breeding 106 The Breeder’s Eye 110 Pigs Are Not Chickens 116 4 Just Not Like Any Other Sheep Breed: The Texel 118 Creating the Texel 120 The Swifter 128 Breeding by Numbers or by Eye 136 AI in Texel Sheep 145 What’s in a Breed? 149 5 From Farm Horse to Riding Horse: The Dutch Warmbloods 153 Gelderlanders and Groningers 155 Introducing “Hot Blood” 159 Finding the Right Mix 161 The Government Intervenes 164 Scientific Breeding 170 Balancing Practical and Scientific Methods 174 Conclusions 178 Notes 193 Sources 239 Bibliography 241 Index 257 Illustrations 1.1 Friesians in 1900. 18 1.2 Dirk 4. 21 1.3 Adema 197. 21 1.4 Milk recording around 1950. 36 1.5 Crowd at a cattle show in Leeuwarden (Friesland) in 1953. 39 1.6 Breeder Siem Moeyes, visiting the United States, inspects a Holstein bull. 53 2.1 Chickens on a mixed farm in the Province of Drenthe, around 1910. 65 2.2 A Euribrid advertisement. 80 2.3 A battery cage in the 1960s. 83 3.1 A Dutch Yorkshire sow. 97 3.2 Measuring backfat thickness. 113 3.3 A provincial pig show in the 1960s. 114 3.4 Demonstration of Hein, a Dutch Landrace boar, at an AI station in the Province of Utrecht. 115 4.1 The Texel in the early nineteenth century. 119 4.2 The Improved Texel. 123 4.3 Lamb sale at Den Burg, Texel, around 1950. 128 4.4 The Swifter. 133 4.5 Weighing at 135 days. 139 4.6 Texels of the luxury type. 142 4.7 The Texel’s characteristic head. 143 5.1 The Gelderlander: farm horse, carriage horse, and riding horse. 156 5.2 The Dutch Tuigpaard. 158 5.3 WPN members demanding more scope for their hobby at the Binnenhof, the Dutch parliament building. 168 C.1 Bronze type model of a Friesian cow in Leeuwarden (Friesland). 186 Acknowledgments This book brings together the results of a project on the history of Dutch livestock breeding supported by a grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO (dossier no. 360-69-030). The chapters on pig breeding and sheep breeding synthesize the findings of two PhD theses written by Steven van der Laan and Jesper Oldenburger, respectively, and the chapter on chicken breeding is based on the results of a postdoc project carried out by Liesbeth van der Waaij. I have fond memories of the time we worked together and of our numerous discus- sions, ranging from the secrets of successful insemination in sows to the rhetoric of agricultural modernization. Over the years that I worked on this book, I have incurred many debts. I want to thank the farmers, breeders, and animal breeding experts who shared their expertise with us, in particular Gerard Albers, Courtney P. Allen, Ton Bos, Anton Bosgoed, Pim Brascamp, Nico Bons, Wim Dekkers, Bart Ducro, Marleen Felius, Jan Geluk, Frans Kuijpers, Ferry Leenstra, Hans Lenstra, Koos van Middeldorp, Mart Nijssen, Kor Oldenbroek, Theo Peters, the late Rommert Politiek, Frans van Sambeek, Piet Scheer, Henk Slaghuis, Reimer Strikwerda, Hans van Tartwijk, Rienk van der Berg, Addie Vereijken, Jan Vosjan, and Chris Willems. For their interest in my work, for many stimulating discussions, and for their comments on parts of the manuscript I want to express my warmest thanks to my colleagues at the Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities at Utrecht University, in particular David Baneke, Floor Haalboom, Hieke Huistra, Noortje Jacobs, Peter Koolmees, Jorieke Savelkouls, and Daan Wegener. I am also grateful to the many colleagues who have commented on my work at conferences and workshops, and during informal conversations. The list is too long to mention them all here, but I want to single out Margaret Derry, whose enthusiasm and suggestions have been a great help.

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