At a time when crossbreeding between indigenous tropical cattle and temperate (Bos taurus) breeds has increased considerably, particularly to increase milk production, one should, perhaps, look again at the role of the best indigenous breeds, both for milk and beef production in their own right and as improvers of less good breeds. There are also a number of breeds whose performance has not been adequately recorded and may therefore have been under-valued in the past. Some of these are described. The article highlights some of the successes in breed improvement and reviews the problems associated with breed evaluation.
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