In commercial farm animal breeding the situation changed quite drastically. From farmers owning males and females, to artificial insemination (AI) companies owning the males and in some species also the breeding females (in pigs, poultry and sometimes also in cattle). The number of herd book organizations has decreased dramatically in the past decades: in cattle many regional herd books were merged into a single national herd book (in cattle) or were terminated. In pigs and poultry the pedigree registration and sampling of phenotypic data were taken over by international breeding companies. Nowadays, farm animal breeding aiming to improve sustainable milk, meat or egg production is an increasingly global industry, providing services to wide range of farming systems.
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