I found this quote in the forward of one of my great-grandfathers books.
For the attainment of success, no business is more dependent on the broad application of the sciences than is that of producing livestock on range and pasture. Unfortunately, many persons are skeptical regarding the application of the scientific principles to their agricultural operations, and are inclined to distinguish between what they term "practical" and what they call "scientific." Today, with a tendency toward the narrowing of the margin of profits in the production of pasture livestock, the use of "extended and systematized commonsense," as one carful thinker defines science is essential to success. Arthur W. Sampson
Range and Pasture Management 1923
As I read my collection of old farming books, I am struck by how practical the science is in those books compared to how things are today. Science seems to have lost its way, it seems more focused on providing jobs for scientists than doing meaningful research and education. Today cattle breeding has been reduced to a bunch of often made up numbers.
The social overhead of making regulation, monitoring compliance, is collosal and inflexible to the needs of the farmer and his stock; e.g. Won't adjust contiguous TB test to avoid calving.