Another word for breeding

Unless you were breeding them, what difference did it make?

The export trade in cattle, sheep and pigs is practically restricted to pedigree animals required for breeding purposes, and though its aggregate value [[Table Xxvi]].-Quantities and Value of Home-bred Live Stock exported from the United Kingdom, 1900-1905.

Those who were unwilling to accept evolution, without better grounds than such as are offered by Lamarck, and who therefore preferred to suspend their judgment on the question, found in the principle of selective breeding, pursued in all its applications with marvellous knowledge and skill by Darwin, a valid explanation of the occurrence of varieties and races; and they saw clearly that, if the explanation would apply to species, it would not only solve the problem of their evolution, but that it would account for the facts of teleology, as well as for those of morphology; and for the persistence of some forms of life unchanged through long epochs of time, while others undergo comparatively rapid metamorphosis.

Oxen were much prized, and breeding was carried on with a careful eye to selection.

Now he wants to try the breeding game one more time.