Argentina’s specialization in beef cattle, whose quality remains unsurpassed even today, was planned and implemented by a small group of landowners in the province of Buenos Aires between 1856 and 1900. Modernization in this sector sustained one of the most successful models of production: by establishing a link between the cattle and sheep industry, landowners were able to take advantage of the technological advances as well as the fluctuations and income differentials in the domestic and international market, and simultaneously eradicate the creole breed and replace it with more profitable, genetically improved cattle.
The process of modernization in the livestock industry was extremely complex. The transfer of technology from Britain to Argentina, designed to improve the genetic quality of the herds, required not only a long-term commitment to the project but also the theoretical training and creativity necessary to breach the technological gap between an advanced country and a nascent...
