Yeah, breed improvement was a major landowner hobby in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.[1] Britain's King George III was nicknamed "Farmer George" because he understood the importance of food for national security.
There's also a story about a German prince trying to get his subjects to grow potatoes, and when they wouldn't, he made potatoes a royal vegetable, only to be grown in one royal garden. The garden was carefully arranged to be laxly guarded. Sure enough, potatoes took off.
Most of our modern farm animals (and crops) look a lot different to their medieval forebears.
There's also a story about a German prince trying to get his subjects to grow potatoes, and when they wouldn't, he made potatoes a royal vegetable, only to be grown in one royal garden. The garden was carefully arranged to be laxly guarded. Sure enough, potatoes took off.
Most of our modern farm animals (and crops) look a lot different to their medieval forebears.
1.https://georgianpapers.com/2017/01/19/farmer-georges-notes-a...