Cattle Breeding
Cattle Breeding
CATTLE BREEDING IN INDIA
In India farmers depend largely on bullocks for ploughing, irrigation
and carting. Hence India needs a good number of efficient bullocks.
Droppings from cattle constitute the most important source of manure for
the soil for maintaining its fertility. India is an important supplier
of animal skin to the international market. Horns,hoofs and bones are
utilized in industries. Bone-meal is used as mineral supplement in
cattle and poultry feeds.
In the villages desirable bulls are selected on the basis of draughtability and permitted to graze with the cows to bring about random animal breeding.
Bulls not selected for breeding are castrated when young and converted
to bullocks. They are the main source of animal draught power in India.
About 10-60 per cent cows are artificially
inseminated by semen collected from high quality bulls. Artificial
insemination ensures good quality progeny and is-also economical as
semen from a single bull can inseminate several thousand cows.
An
average cow or buffalo produces 8 - 10 calves during its productive
life time. Generally only one ovum is fertilised at a time.
Selective breeding,progenytesting and improvement take longer time in
the livestock than in annual food crops. Majority of Indian cattle have
been on marginal inputs and are infertile and poor milk yielders.
Research on the cause of infertility led to the use of pregnant mare
serum gonadotropin, to increase fertility. Stilbesterol tablets are implanted to induce lactation in sterile cows and immature females
To
increase the milk yield, Indian cows are cross-bred with European
breeds like Holstein, Brown Swiss, Jersey, Red Dane and others. The
Karanswiss and Sunandini are the breeds developed through cross breeding
at the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, and in Kerala,
respectively.
Super ovulation and Embryo Transplantation
It is a kind of animal breeding method
in wich A pedigreed bull and a high production cows are chosen to
produce super milch cows. Super ovulation is induced by hormone
injection. After artificial insemination, 4-10 embryos are collected at a
time. Each embryo is then transplanted into a “carrier” cow (surrogate
mother). Such embryo transplants can also be carried out in sheep, goats
and other livestock. By deep freezing (—1 96°Cy it is posibIe to
preserve seven days old foetuses for several years to be used when
needed. An embryo can be cut into two, to obtain homo zygotic twins. The
most beneficial outcome of embryo transplantation is the selection of
high quality bulls for genetic upgrading.
Breeds of cattle
There
are over 24 major breeds of cattle and 6 breeds of buffaloes in India.
These can either adapt themselves to local conditions or conditions
throughout the country. The quality of the cattle, in general, depends
on the environmental conditions, especially on rainfall, temperature and
humidity Indian cattle are found to do well in dry areas whereas they
tend to be small in areas of heavy rainfall such as the coastal and
hilly regions of the country. The important breeds of Indian cattle's
for different purposes are as follows:
1. Much breeds: Eq - Gir, Deoni, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi etc.
2. Draught breeds: Eg- Malvi, Nageri, Hallikar, Kangayam etc.
BUFFALLOES
Buffaloes
are better than cows because they are more resistant to diseases, give
more milk and live longer. Their milk yielding capacity is three times
more than cows. Buffalo’s milk is also superior to cow’s milk in fat
content and minerals. The number of buffaloes in India is about one
third of the cows.