With the establishments of herd books, breeds were formed. There is still debate on what is a true definition of the term ‘breed’. This is nicely illustrated in dog breeding by the fact that the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI), the international federation of kennelclubs, which are national organisations across herd books, recognises 356 separate breeds, while the English Kennelclub recognises 222 breeds, and the American Kennelclub even only 200.
Definitions
A breed is a group of animals of a certain species that through generations of selective breeding has become uniform in performance, appearance, and selection history or in other words: a sub specific group of domestic livestock with a common history whose members are treated in a common manner with respect to genetic management
A species is the largest group of animals that are capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring
It is interesting to realise that these herd books were established without any knowledge about genetics. Breeders had a feeling about inheritance and that was sufficient to invent this selective breeding.
In the seventies of the 19th century cattle herd books were established in The Netherlands. Three main breeds were developed with a different look that is illustrated with this picture taken around 1950:
