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From the 1860s onward, the Limousin region undertook to improve its local cattle breed by abandoning crossbreeds and introducing foreign breeds for the sole purpose of selection. This was a choice made by large landowners and agricultural institutions, including agricultural shows and associations and later on herd books. However, long before this development took place, fattening had been displaced by the production of young animals, with cows becoming numerically dominant. Farmers’ practical backing of Limousin cows combined with the pragmatic stance of local nobles well aware of the realities of the rural world thus paved the way for the theory of improvement through selection.