NDRI finds indigenous cattle more profitable than foreign breeds

KARNAL: After the Manohar Lal Khattar-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Haryana took several initiatives to promote indigenous cows in the state, the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) here has also found indigenous cattle breeds more profitable than foreign and mixed breeds, especially cows.

The fact came to light in research findings at the NDRI under the National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project, in which scientists found that Indian breeds of both cows and buffaloes are more resilient to the climate change, so the change in weather does not affect milk production of indigenous breeds.

“Our research is based on why our indigenous breeds are more resilient to climate change? Milk production of Indian breeds, especially cows, remains unaffected in summer, when the production of other breeds falls sharply,” said AK Srivastva, director of the NDRI.

He said foreign breeds were adopted to increase milk production, but now it has been found that the lifetime milk production of indigenous breeds is much higher than cows of foreign breed. The lactation capacity of Indian breeds is more than double of foreign breeds.

Briefing about the research, Dr SV Singh, principal investigator of NICRA project, said, “The project started in 2011 and so far we have come to know that the body of Indian animals makes them different as their skin is darker and hair brighter, which help make them resilient to climate change.”

“Bad impact of mix breeds can also be seen on Indian breeds, but now we are working to increase milk production of Indian breeds also and make foreign breeds more resilient,” he added.

Foreign breeds cannot produce milk after three or four lactations, he said. DAIRY FARMERS DIFFER

However, dairy farmers are of the view that per lactation milk production of Indian breeds (cows) is lower than that of foreign breeds. “No doubt, milk quality of indigenous cows is better than foreign breeds, but per lactation production is lower as most of indigenous cows can produce only 10-12 litre milk, whereas foreign breeds can produce 20-25 litres a day,” said a dairy farmer Prem Chand of Yamunangar.

Another dairy farmer Sandeep Kumar of Bijna village of Karnal said that they should work to increase milk production of indigenous cows to make them profitable.