This publication contains the proceedings of the 30th Biennial Session of the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR), held 23-28 June 1996, in Veldhoven, the Netherlands. During the session progress reports were presented by the Sub-committees, Task Forces and Working Groups of ICAR. An added feature of the 1996 Session was a special session on milk recording in developing countries with small recorded animal populations. Several papers prepared concerning this subject are included in these proceedings. Sessions were held on performance recording of dairy cattle, beef, sheep, goats and buffaloes as well as on genetic evaluation. A Working Group on Buffalo was created; the results of a world survey on milk performance in these species was presented and is reported upon in the proceedings. A number of papers were also presented in other areas such as the use of technologies like the Internet and the experiences of different countries in several fields, such as electronic data interchange, fax and multi-user systems. In addition, three papers were presented by new member countries. A session was devoted to Board meetings, in co-operation with the AI industry and the World Dairy and Beef Breeds Associations. In all, over 60 technical papers and reports were presented during the sessions.