xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
In order to be officially approved, breeders' associations and breeding organizations which maintain or establish a herd-book must:
that they operate efficiently;
that they can carry out the checks necessary for recording pedigrees;
that they have a sufficiently large herd to carry out a breed improvement programme, or that they have a sufficiently large herd to preserve the breed where this is considered necessary;
that they can make use of the livestock performance data necessary for carrying out their breed improvement or preservation programme;
the definition of the breed's (or breeds') characteristics;
the system for identifying animals;
the system for recording pedigrees;
the definition of their breeding objectives;
the systems for making use of livestock performance data, enabling the genetic value of the animals to be assessed;
the division of the herd-book, if there are different conditions for entering animals or if there are different procedures for classifying the animals entered in the book;