Breeding Between Conservation and Improvement: standards and care in Norwegian sheep breeding practices

This master´s thesis explores the intricate interplay of sheep, farmers, scientists, computers, knowledge, and material devices in Norwegian sheep breeding practices in southeast Norway. Through ethnographic fieldwork on two distinct sheep breeds - Gammalnorsk spælsau and Norsk kvit sau - I delve into the multifaceted dimensions of sheep husbandry and breeding in the country to analyze how environmental and economic aspects converge to influence both relations of care and the making of standards. Essentially, this thesis examines the dynamic reconfiguration of the value of sheep through the past, present, and future of Norwegian agriculture and husbandry. The primary objective of this study is not only to understand how the distinct breeds are enacted in the worlds they partake in, but also how changes to ecologies and agricultural economics influence the breeding objectives upheld by the respective breeding communities. Exploring how the breeds in question respond to these themes differently illuminates not only an aesthetic diversity, but also an antagonistic dependency in how their breeding communities and ideologies are developed. The breeding practices will be explored on three scales: (1) the scale of the flock and the farm, (2) the scale of the county organizations for sheep and their selection shows, and (3) the scale of the national and centralized system for sheep breeding encompassing breeds like Norsk kvit sau. Through participant observation at farms in Buskerud and Akershus, as well as interviews with employees at the national association for sheep breeding (NSG), this research ultimately engages with fundamental questions about the processes, practices, and ideals that make sheep - as we know them - come into being.