Himachal to launch project to enhance milk output

Shimla, August 26

The state government will launch a sex-sorted semen (SSS) project under the artificial insemination programme to ensure the birth of female calves to enhance milk production and fast-track profits of dairy farmers.

The SSS technology will be introduced in all 12 districts of the state next month, said Animal Husbandry Minister Virender Kanwar. He added that the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) of the Union Government had sanctioned the project under the Accelerated Breed Improvement Programme of the Rashtriya Gokul Mission and a grant of Rs 8.42 crore had been released to the state.

He said the first lot of 20,000 doses of sex-sorted semen had been purchased. The sample doses were being sent to a Hyderabad laboratory for ‘X’ Chromosome verification. The semen would be put to use in the field as soon as reports were received from the lab, he added.

The minister said that the first insemination in cows and buffaloes under the programme would be undertaken next month and the SSS of advanced breeds such as Gir, Sahiwal, cross-bred Jersey and cross-bred Holstein Friesian, which meet the standards specified by the Union Government, would be made available to farmers.

Kanwar said that the chances of producing a female calve would increase from 50 per cent to 90 per cent with the SSS technology and the initiative would also reduce the burden on farmers to manage male bull calves.

He said the cost of a single dose of sex-sorted semen is Rs 675 and the government would provide it to dairy farmers for Rs 125 per dose and the Union Government would bear the remaining Rs 425 per straw. He added that the Himachal Pradesh Livestock and Poultry Development Board would provide an additional subsidy of Rs 125 per straw.

He said SSS doses would be used to obtain three lakh assured pregnancies in five years, which would lead to the birth of around 2.4 lakh female calves in the state.