BREEDING PLAN FOR CATTLE IN NEPAL

PREPARED BY:AABHAS PAUDEL, ROLL NO. 1DEEPAK LAMSAL, ROLL NO. 9RAJENDRA DHAKAL,ROLL NO.17SAURAV BHATTARAI,ROLL NO.25RAMESH SHAH , ROLL NO.34

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Nepal has diverse genetic material with high variation providing a raw material for genetic progress.

The indigenous cattle Lulu, Achami,Siri, Pahari, Khaila, Terai and Yak.

(Though low productivity; disease resistance, hardiness and other characters suitable for local environment due to continuous selection pressure imposed by nature itself.)

Major dominating exotic breeds -Jersey and Holstein Friesian. (High productivity)

So breeding plan should incorporate one of them.

Nepalese local cattle

jersey

AVILABLE BREED IN NEPAL

HOLSTEIN

necessity of employing appropriate breeding strategy for upgrading local breeds with exotic breeds suitable for local production environment.

However, the indigenous breeds are in danger of extinction due to

injudicious use of crossbreeding program superiority of cross bred cattle compared to

local breeds drawing attention towards keeping those cross bred animals.

So, it is a prime necessity to preserve the genetic resource.

Breed Distribution  LuLu\kirko High mountain of western

and eastern Nepal, Mustang  Achhami Western part of hills , Achham

district  Siri High areas of eastern region  Pahadi Found in mountain, hills and

terai  Chauri cows Mountain and hills  Yak and Nak  High mountain

BREEDING:thepresent need of cattle industry of Nepal

Why ??? To conserve indigenous genetic resource To increase the milk production with high fat

percentage To improve the body configuration To increase the feed efficiency To decrease the generation interval and age of

first calving To increase lactation length To reduce calving interval

In Nepal, local male cattle are used especially for drought purpose as they are hardy in nature and cows are reared for milk production and manure. In mid hills most farmers are domesticating local cows because of which they are forced to get-

-Low milk yield 150-180 lit/lactation over a period of 180-200 days.

-Short lactation length -Less profit

However, local cattle can be adopted easily in midhills. It as they are hardy in nature, can resist disease etc.

Proper breeding techniques are limited in research station and mostly farmers are growing cattle so there should be the necessity of improvement of local cattle.

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STATEMENT OF PRESENT CONDITION

Breeding systemThe breeding system will involve two steps:

1.Line breeding of indigenous breeds at their Particular production environment in order to conserve the native germplasm.

2.Cross breeding of selected females of local breed with suitable other exotic or local breeds as per necessity of the production environment.

Choice of breed and breeding system:

All indigenous breeds of cattle for maintaining germ plasm &

 jersey breed for upgrading

For bringing exotic breed into the native gene pool the 3 tier breeding scheme will be used.

1. Nucleus: breeding unit in the exporting country ( for 100%jersey semen)

2. Multiplier: breeding unit in the country at various eco-zones.

3. Producer: producing (commercial) unit in the country at particular eco-zones.

Selection of individuals  Selection differential, heritability,

genetic gain, selection index and other parameters will be determined on each generation mainly based on milk production and fat percentage. This increase milk production with higher fat percentage, shorter calving interval, and longer lactation yield all has positive economic values.

The animals will be evaluated based on its own production and pedigree records,milk yield, fat percentage, disease resistance characters.

Certain healthy animals, productive (fertile) female animals of local cattle will be the population for improvement and for male; the jersey bulls will be chosen.

Mating for Selected Animals  Indigenous germplam will be

preserved by line breeding For cross breeding (grading up) all the

female cattle selected will be inseminated by thesemen of pure breed jersey bulls or semen of other local breeds as per necessary and progenies will be selected on the basis of breed characters. 

For cross breeding with jersey breed repeated back crossing will be employed to achieve the required blood level i.e. more than 75%

Acchami cattle:The genetic improvement strategy for for Acchami cattles should be dedicated in maintaining purity by line breeding and then at commercial level crossing with hill cattle can be practiced.

  For Lulu, Pahadi, Khaila and Terai :

line breeding will be done at germ palsm conservation center established at high mountain ( mustang), hills, mountain and terai region respectively. For commercially improving productivity grading up will be done with jersey semen use by artificial insemination upto 75% blood level for lulu, pahadi and khaila and 87.25% blood level to terai breed.

  For yak:

Pure-breeding is the predominant practice with yak.The aim should be to improve the breed for meat and hair.

  The use of selected breeding bulls is recommended, and newborn

animals may be assigned a grade on the basis of the grades of their parents. Nucleus herd and multiplier herd scan be established in high Himalayan region for genetic improvement program.

The concerned trait for the study is about milk production. The different methods used for the program are:

Selection of the breeds on the basis of performance:

The male of pure jersey breed and female of local cattle were selected on the basis their performance.

METHODOLOGY

Female of local cattle Male of pure jersey

BREED SELECTION

Jerseyconsidered as economical producers. Highest milk recorded was 11381 kg in the period of 365 days of lactation length with 5.3% fat.

Local cattle Siri in the midhills Less feed required can produce 2.5litres\day at the peak

period of lactation and the length of lactation was found to be 180-210 days

Crossbreedingmating of animals of different breed, generally used where crossed progeny is directly marketed. It can be used for the production of new breeds. It is important tool for introducing desirable traits into a breed. Crossbred animals exhibit an accelerated growth and vigor or heterosis.

  

Grading uppractice of breeding sires of given breed to nondescript females and their offspring for generation after generation.

Here, the local cattle female acted as non descriptive female mated with a breeding sire jersey. The female offspring are backcrossed with jersey bulls and such back crossing is repeated generation after generation.

Mating system

It is very important tool in the breeding technique and is responsible for the success and failure of the breeding plan. Best to best mating among the animals is very important during breeding for getting the better progeny with desirable traits which the breeder going to introduce in that progeny.

An example of genetic improvement program and its effect

Lets consider grading up of local cattle breed say, local cattle(Siri) and exotic cattle

breed jersey for improving milk production 

The milk production traits are medium to high in heritability in cattle indicating

additive and non-additive genetic effect both. Progress can be made by selection and

breeding.

The cross breeding will be carried to maintain 62.5% blood level of jersey.

3 successive generations crossing of female with 100% pure jersey male will be

carried out at multiplier herd.

 

Same procedure will be disseminated to commercial level

It is very necessary that proper breeding plan should be implemented in Nepal

improved breed gives higher milk yield which acts as an additional income of farmers and can easily raise their economic status.

Nepal has its own diverse genetic material which have additional benefit of  disease resistance, hardiness and other characters suitable for local environment

Conclusion and suggestions:

Native genetic resources are in danger of extinction because of indiscriminate breeding programs and comparative benefit of other cross bred or exotic breeds of cattle.

Conserving the native gene pool of cattle breed is the responsibility of government and it should launch an effective program for identification, characterization and preservation of these indigenous genetic resources of cattle.

Line breeding can be considered for improvement of local breeds of cattle by opening research and germplasm conservation stations at various ecozones.

Commercially, cross bred animals especially with jersey are found to be beneficial due to their high lactational milk yield. Due to this, crossbreeding with Jersey should be carried out as means of upgrading the local cattle.

Governmental sector should formulate proper breeding strategy to address different ecological zones and breeds available there.

  Establishment of  multiplier herds at different

eco-zones may be considered for ensuring judicious use of breeding program at farmers’ level to bring white revolution for overall development of country and alleviation of poverty.

  Lasley, J.F. Genetics of Livestock improvement practice

(3rd edition).  Kolachhapati Manaraj and Neupane Manish, 2005

Practical manual of principles of animal breeding, HICAST, Kathmandu Nepal.

Dalton,D.C. (1985), An introduction to practical animal breeding (2nd edition).

  Banerjee, G.C. A text book on animal husbandry (8th

edition).  Legates, J.E. and Warwick, E.J. Breeding and

improvement of farm animals (8th edition).

References:

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