This paper explores how cattle breeds are constructed
through social practice—which we conceptually develop as “designing”
cattle. We show how breed varieties are designed, informed by the social,
material and moral embeddedness of cattle breeding associations’ visions
of the future and how they draw on science and technology in their breeding
strategies. Based on an analysis of the trade magazines of three
different breeding associations, we illustrate how breeding associations are
working to establish four different varieties of Swedish Mountain Cattle
(SMC). We conclude that the concept of designing cattle enables us to
unpack how breeds are socially constructed and institutionally stabilized
through sociotechnical imaginaries.