Improving breed’s quality: Murrah bull’s sperms to be used
Deepender Deswal
Tribune News Service
Singhwa Khas (Hisar), Oct 22
The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has adopted Heera, the progeny of Lakshmi that was sold off for Rs 25 lakh, for using its sperm to improve the quality of Murrah buffalo under a World-Bank-funded project.
Heera is the first Murrah bull selected by the NDDB under the “Mission Milk” project after it passed hosts of disease and progeny tests and found to be pure Murrah breed.
Kapoor Singh, owner of the three-year-old bull, has tied up with the NDDB on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis; he would sell off 50 per cent of the semen straws and the rest would be used by the NDDB in its research project aimed at ushering in second white revolution in the country.
Dr Rajesh Jadon, manager, NDDB’s semen station in Rohtak, said today the board selected Heera after it proved to be a high genetic and disease-free bull as per the internationally established practices of progeny testing and pedigree selection. The tests were conducted on the bull and its mother Lakshmi in the board’s laboratory at its headquarters in Anand, Gujarat, in the last three months.
“The bull is likely to generate nearly 3,000 doses of semen in a month for artificial insemination of buffaloes. The semen extracted through artificial ejaculation twice or thrice a week would be diluted in about 3,000 doses of 0.5 ml each,” he said, adding the NDDB has been in the process of selecting Murrah buffalos that yield more than 15 liters of milk. “We will artificially inseminate these buffalos with Heera’s semen for the birth of quality calves.”
Dr Rajender Singh, senior extension specialist, Lala Lajpath Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (LUVAS), said efforts are being made to prepare a cluster of pure Murrah buffalos in Hisar, Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani and Jhajjar districts.
Kapoor Singh of the district’s Singhwa Khas village said: “Heera is priceless for me and I will never sell the bull for any price. Though Heera’s mother Lakshmi fetched me Rs 25 lakh, but I regret to sell her. Heera is part of our family. Though I have been spending a bomb on its care, I hope to get good returns by selling off its sperm. I will get about 1,500 straws each month and has fixed a price of Rs 300 apiece. Heera is my pride as even a World-Bank-funded project has taken his service.”
