Fil: Ortega, Ariel. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Escuela de Medicina Veterinaria. Río Negro, Argentina.Fil: Costera Pastor, Adrian. ISTOM, Ecole supérieure d'agro-développement international. Cergy. FranceFil: Leuret, Camille. ISTOM, Ecole supérieure d'agro-développement international. Cergy. FranceFil: Yaful, Graciela. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Escuela de Medicina Veterinaria. Río Negro, Argentina.Fil: Klich, Maria Guadalupe. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Escuela de Medicina Veterinaria. Río Negro, Argentina.- Ortega, A., C. Leuret, G. Yaful , A. Costera and M.G. Klich. 2016 Strategies for Genetic Improvement of Cattle in the North Patagonian Rangelands. En: The Future Management of Grazing and Wild Lands in a High-Tech World: Proceedings 10th International Rangeland Congress/ Editors: Alan Iwaasa, H.A. (Bart) Lardner, Walter Willms, Mike Schellenberg and Kathy Larson on behalf of the 2016 International Rangeland Congress Org. Committee, http://2016canada.rangelandcongress.org/. 953-954.Foot and mouth disease (FMD) has generated growing concerns to producers from the 1960s to the present because of the direct economic losses, as well as problems arising from international export trade. Since 1970, Argentina has been divided into zones with a different health status of FMD. Until 2013 a zone free of the disease with vaccination (North Patagonia A) acted as a protection area for the free zone without vaccination (the rest of Patagonia). Given that the sanitary barrier banned the entry of live animals from the north of the country, it was thought that breeder sales would increase significantly. This did not happen because the cattle breeders bought new stock before the change in 2013, as well as a decrease resulting from the drought that hit during 2007-2009, in many cases reaching 50% fewer animals. Farmers are in a process of retaining cows, so delaying the genetic improvement process. An equally important factor is the existence of fattening to corral with a special category called young uncastrated male, of which some animals are selected for breeding because of their phenotypic characteristics. Finally, there is a percentage of producers who use their own replacement bulls leaving calves born in the field as future parents. Some improvements are displayed in the price and number of animals sold during the 2015 Rural Exhibitions