Hariana breed cow produces record milk yield of 20.6 kg

Tribune News Service

Hisar, October 6

Animal scientists of Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (LUVAS) here have claimed that a Hariana breed cow yielded 20.6 kg milk in a day on Saturday. Hariana cow is an indigenous breed of dairy cattle.

Dr Gurdial Singh, Vice-Chancellor of LUVAS, congratulated the scientists of Department Animal Genetics and Breeding and said it was a step forward towards increasing the farmers’ income through comprehensive breed improvement programmes.

The Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding was granted a project “Genetic Improvement of Indigenous Breed of Cattle – Hariana Unit” by ICAR during 1985-86 to undertake studies on propagation, multiplication, improvement and conservation of Hariana Cattle with the germplasm unit at the main campus and four other associated units in and around Hisar. This project on genetic improvement of Hariana Cattle successfully continued for nearly 25 years.

“Judicious selection and mating for eight generations of Hariana cow project led to this outcome. The cow has surpassed all records in its class and recorded a peak yield of 19.80 kg on per day average for past three days. Today, this record was also surpassed as the cow yield was recorded at 20.6 kg. This cow has fairly good track record of reproduction traits with age at first calving average, calving interval and dry period,” said the VC.

The cow had attained a peak yield at 17.2 kg per day with total lactation milk yield of 3,281.4 kg during last lactation period. It also has an unprecedented average daily milk yield of 12.97 kg per day. It may be mentioned that the state average peak yield of Hariana cow is about 5 to 6 kg per day, against the national average of elite farms of this breed at 8 to 9 kg per day.

Dr Abhay Singh Yadav, Head of the Department, Dr Parveen Goel, Director of Research, and Dr Diwakar Sharma, Dean, College of Veterinary Sciences, claimed that the unique performance of Hariana cattle herd at the farm in general and cow A-6 in particular was obtained due to concerted efforts by the team of scientists.

The Union Agriculture Ministry had honoured the scientists of the university with the National Kamdhenu Award for their outstanding contribution to improvement of indigenous breeds of cattle — Hariana and Sahiwal — last year on World Milk Day at New Delhi.