Formas de “fazer o gado”

This article examines interspecies practices of dairy cattle management by peasant families who produce artisanal Minas cheese in the Canastra region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. We analyze practices referred to by these families as "fazer o gado" ("making the cattle"), which result in "mestizo" herds—a mixture of breeds that specialized technicians often regard as outdated due to their low productivity. We aim to demonstrate how these families' breeding practices follow a logic fundamentallydifferent from the genetic improvement strategies aimed at industrial-scale milk production. These families' rejection of breed specialization technologies reflects analternative ethic in their relationships with animals, the land, and nature, as part of their broader organization of life and labor. It also encompasses a set of elements andknowledge related to proximity, memory, animal health care, and distinct economic and environmental conceptions, which have enabled the preservation of their way of life and the production of a food that has gained significant recognition..