Enhancing the Productivity of Cattle and Buffaloes
Kamlesh Trivedi
Advisor, National Dairy Development Board
First, let me say that I am very happy to be here today to deliver the keynote address focusing on increasing the productivity of dairy cattle and buffaloes. For sustaining the growth of the dairy sector, enhancing the productivity of cattle and buffaloes is now a key priority area. I would begin by saying we have done remarkably well in increasing milk production in the country. India is the largest milk producer in the world. The estimate of milk production for the year 2021-22 was 221.06 MMT comprising 70.4 MMT from crossbreds and exotic cows (31.8%), 44.6 MMT (20.2%) from indigenous cows, 99.6 MMT(45.1%) from buffaloes, and 6.5 MMT (2.9%) from goats. The average productivity per cow per year works out to 1949.8 kgs and that for buffaloes to 2174.7 kgs. The total milk production of India in 2021- 22 was more than double of the USA, the second-largest milk producer in the world. The US milk production from cows in 2021-22 was 102.6 MMT from 9.44 million cows in milk. This converts to the average production of 10,869 kgs per cow per year about 5.6 times the productivity of Indian cows. Of course, they do not have buffaloes. Our productivity figures might look pretty bad compared to the US figures, but if we compare it with the global average, which was 2692 kgs. in 2021-22, it works out to 72% of the global average which is not that bad. If one looks at the productivity figures in the last decade, our annual growth in productivity in cattle and buffaloes have been 2.54 and 2.38 percent respectively which are well above the world average (1.54% in cattle and 1.9% in buffaloes). So it is likely that soon we would achieve productivity levels above the global average. However, we have not to be complacent as the demand for milk production in the country has been growing because of rapid urbanization, a rise in per capita income, and a small increase in the human population. It is equally true that we have a large bovine population and any further increase in the population is not sustainable considering both our resource constraints and the adverse impact of bovines on climate change. The future increase in milk demand therefore will have to be met by increasing the productivity of cattle and buffaloes. We have no option. Raising productivity in cattle and buffalo is a complex exercise, more so in India because millions of small farmers are involved in dairy farming across the country. Increasing productivity entails the development of infrastructure and putting in place processes that lead to increasing the genetic potential of cattle and buffaloes, improving the availability of feed and fodder and advising on ration balancing, strengthening animal health services, enhancing farmers’ skills on the management of animals, collecting adequate and timely data on inputs and outputs for making informed decision making at all levels, adhering to standards of products quality and input services, and improving access to market enabling farmers to receive remunerative prices for their produce.
I would give my thoughts briefly on all of these aspects.
Increasing genetic potential
Enhancing genetic potential is an important means to increase the productivity of animals. The important characteristic of genetic improvement is that it is permanent and cumulative – permanent meaning its influence remains for the entire life of an animal and cumulative meaning improvement made in one generation is added to those made in previous generations. Genetic improvement can also be sustained so long as genetic variability is maintained in the population. Hence, sustained efforts on genetic improvement in dairy cattle as demonstrated by some of the advanced dairy-producing nations, can be very rewarding. For example, the US increased its productivity of dairy cows from 4700 kgs in 1975 to 10,869 kgs. in 2021-22. Some 60-70 percent of these productivity increases are attributed to genetic improvement and the remaining 30-40 percent to improvement in the environment – feeding, healthcare, management, etc. Such high levels of genetic improvement have been achieved by these countries through building an infrastructure for performance recording for various traits and genetic evaluation and selecting the very best animals on their breeding values and then disseminating their genetics to the maximum number of animals in the population. For genetic improvement, the activities for which the infrastructure to be built and the processes to be put in place include:
(i) Setting breeding goals, (ii) deciding on appropriate breeding designs, (iii) performance recording for various traits on an individual animal basis, (iv) genotyping of recorded animals, (v) estimating breeding values, and (vi) dissemination of genetics of the best-selected animals. The other adjuncts to the main activities include: (i) the identification of animals, (ii) putting in place an information system to collect data, and (iii) establishing regulatory mechanisms for all activities.
Setting breeding goals
Cattle and buffaloes in our country are kept not for milk alone but also for many other traits such as growth, fat percentage, conception, draft ability, etc. Thus, while defining a breeding goal one has to decide on the traits to be included and the weights to be applied to all selected traits. Traits to be included in the breeding goal should be decided through a consultative process of all stakeholders in the dairy value chain such as farmers, breeding service providers, consumers, retailers, distributors, and processors.
Deciding on Breeding Designs
According to the 20th Livestock Census India had 136 million adult female population comprising pure HF, HF crossbred, pure Jersey, Jersey crossbred, 39 breeds of indigenous cattle, nondescript cattle, 13 breeds of buffaloes, and nondescript buffaloes. When we are talking about the genetic improvement of cattle and buffaloes in the country we are talking about the genetic improvement of these six categories of cattle and two categories of buffaloes. Under National Dairy Plan (NDP), beginning in 2012, NDDB initiated a well-proven progeny testing approach for six breeds namely pure HF (one program), HF crossbred (four programs), Jersey crossbred (two programs), Gir (one program), Mehsana buffaloes (two programs), and Murrah buffaloes (four programs) in all 14 programs in places where good AI infrastructure existed and there had been an agency having experience of implementing field programs. After 2019, these programs have been continued under the RGM of DAHD, GoI. Under these programs, a certain number of bulls are put to test, and using their test doses daughters are produced, when daughters come in their milk they are recorded throughout their lactation, and based on the daughters’ records breeding values of bulls put to test are estimated, stored semen doses of top proven bulls are then used on the top recorded female for producing the next generation of young male calves which are then used for semen production. Since 2012 these PT programs together have put 3257 bulls under test, carried out 59 lakh test inseminations, and collected test day milk records of some 89 thousand daughters. These programs have supplied so far some 3033 top genetically evaluated young bulls for semen production. Besides PT programs, NDDB also initiated 9 pedigree selection (PS) programs for eight indigenous breeds namely Kankrej, Rathi, Sahiwal, Tharparkar, Hariana, Jaffarabadi, Pandharpuri, and Nili Ravi following a two-tier breeding structure in their respective native tract. In multiplier villages, under these projects, AI infrastructure is being expanded and some elite female animals are being milk recorded. The farmers having top recorded animals are contracted to produce young male calves to be procured for semen production. The PS projects together have carried out some 5.7 lakh AI and collected milk records of 30 thousand animals. These projects together have supplied 739 selected young bulls for semen production.
Performance recording
With PT and PS programs a huge population of cattle and buffaloes has been performance recorded for various economically important traits. For the measurement of traits, appropriate measuring tools have been developed. For measuring milk yield, a GPSbased weighing scale has been developed, which measures the quantity of milk and sends data to the central server on the quantity of milk measured and the location, date, and time of milk recording through the mobile of the milk recorder. This has remarkably improved the quality of milk records. Farmers are using the records for feeding and management of their animals. With both buyers and sellers trusting milk records, the process of buying and selling animals has become very smooth. For milk components recording both centralized testings at a centralized milk testing laboratory and decentralized testing for a cluster of 10-15 villages by placing a small milk component analyzer have been tried. Placing a milk component analyzer for a cluster of 10- 15 AI centres has greatly solved the logistic problems of milk sample collection. All data on AI, pregnancy diagnosis, and calving are collected as they happen and sent live to the central server through the INAPH (Information Network for Animal Productivity and Health) mobile application loaded on AI technicians’ mobiles ensuring accurate collection of data on all reproduction traits. Many appropriate instruments have been developed for measuring type traits.
Breeding Value Estimation
The Government of India has constituted a Breeding Value Estimation Committee (BVEC) which decides on the model to be used for estimating breeding values for different traits and coordinates the estimation of breeding values of all recorded animals in the PT and PS projects and publishes the breeding values on NDDB’s web site. A sub-committee of the BVEC then estimates breeding values every quarter using NDDB’s computing facilities. Currently, breeding value estimations are done for HF, HFCB, JCB, and Gir cattle breeds and Murrah and Mehsana buffalo breeds. At present a random regression test-day model is used for estimating breeding values of bulls and all recorded females for different traits. Introduction of genomics: Now we have a common 53K-SNPs Chip for cattle and a 60K chip for buffaloes. NDDB has genotyped some 31 thousand cattle and 16 thousand buffaloes creating a reference population for a few breeds. With these reference populations, it is now possible to estimate genomic breeding values for HFCB, JCB, and Gir cattle breeds and Murrah and Mehsana buffalo breeds. With genomic breeding values, the accuracy of breeding values of bull calves has increased varying from 60 to 200% over different breeds. The selection of young bulls based on genomic breeding values is expected to increase the genetic gain by 2-3 folds in our conditions.
Animal Identification systems
Unique identification of animals in genetic evaluation is a key requirement. A 12-digit animal identification system, as recommended by the International Committee on Animal Recording (ICAR) having the first 11 digits as a serial number and the 12th digit as a check digit derived from the first 11 digits, is being followed. The number does not reflect the animal’s location. It is just a unique number across the country. NDDB has been authorized to coordinate the activity of generating unique numbers used by all agencies in the country. To date, some 26.8 crore animals have been registered in the country using unique numbers provided by NDDB.
Information systems
No genetic improvement program could be implemented effectively without a sound information system. NDDB has developed an information system referred to as the “Information Network for Animal Productivity and Health (INAPH)”. INAPH facilitates the recording of data on reproduction, production, type traits, and various aspects of breeding, animal health, and nutritional services. INAPH is primarily designed for service providers extending various production enhancement services to farmers. INAPH has a facility to record transactions right at farmers’ doorstep by field technicians viz. AI technicians, veterinarians, milk recorders, village-level resource persons, etc. With its strong validation checking mechanism, INAPH ensures a very high level of accuracy of data collected. The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Govt. of India has designated the INAPH application as the national application for capturing all breeding, nutrition, and health-related data. All the PT and PS projects use INAPH for data recording. For online updates on INAPH use, seeNDDB’s INAPH portal (https://www.nddb. coop).
Regulatory mechanism for breeding services
It is important that the bulls used for semen production are certified for genetic quality and freedom from diseases by an independent central body and similarly the semen stations where semen is produced are certified for semen quality by an independent central body. Likewise, all inseminators that provide AI services also need to be certified for their skills for AI service by some independent body at the state level. At present the Central Monitoring Unit set up by DAHD is evaluating all semen stations biannually and all genetic improvement programs implemented under RGM are evaluated by NDDB annually. There is no system for evaluating AI services at present.
Dissemination of genetics
Selecting parents and mating them to produce progenies – young males for AI and young females for replacement – is a key final step to achieving genetic progress in any population. Under NDP young bulls are produced under PT projects by nominated mating of top recorded females with the semen of top proven bulls and supplied to the semen stations. Similarly, under the PS project, high-quality young males are produced by inseminating top-recorded females with the semen of top-quality bulls. So far PT and PS projects have supplied 4772 high-quality young bulls for semen production. These bulls have replaced about 60 percent of the existing bulls at all 60 semen stations in the country. These projects are expected to supply about 1000 high genetic merit bulls every year. The next important step is to use the selected males maximally to produce a maximum number of disease-free semen doses from them. This requires building modern facilities to house bulls and produce semen doses besides making bull housing and semen processing facilities bio-secured through building facilities for quarantine and rearing of bulls and putting in place standard operating procedures for disease testing and culling. NDDB, in its NDP, assisted 28 semen stations out of the total of 60 semen stations in the country to modernize their bull housing and semen processing facilities and also helped them put in place biosecurity measures. These stations in 2021-22 produced 123 million doses from 4870 bulls. Five semen stations in the government sector one each in Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu and three one each by BAIF, ABS, and Mehsana Union outside the government sector have sexed semen production facilities. So far 63 lakh doses of sex-sorted semen have been used in the country. Under RGM, 20 IVF and ET labs have been established. These centres have produced so far 16,000 embryos, transferred 7516, and produced 1219 elite calves. The final step is to carry semen doses to farmers’ doorstep to provide AI services to farmers ensuring a high level of conception. Achieving a high level of conception requires maintaining a cold chain for carrying the semen doses to farmers’ doorstep and building the capacity of inseminators through proper training. The country has more than 1.2 lakh inseminators carrying out more than 100 million inseminations. The AI coverage is estimated to be around 30%.
Improving the availability of feed and fodder and advising on ration balancing
The genetic potential of animals could be harnessed by providing balanced nutrition and keeping them healthy. Let us look at first how we can improve our feeding systems to enhance the productivity of cattle and buffaloes. In our country, diverse feeding systems are followed. At one end, animals are maintained only on grazing in natural grasslands, jungles, and high-altitude pastures with almost no external inputs. Such animals are milked once a day. The cost of milk production is almost zero. At the other extreme, animals of high genetic potentials are maintained with high-quality feeds which include fodder crops/silage, grains, and protein concentrates, often in the form of a total mixed ration. Rations are balanced for maximum production. Milk production per animal is high, technological inputs are high, and at the same time, the cost of milk production is also very high. Between these two extremes, all conceivable systems of feeding exist with varying levels of supplementation with crop residues, agricultural and industrial by-products, green fodder, silage, grains, protein meals, compounded cattle feed, bypass feed, etc. At the country level, it is estimated that on average crop residues and agricultural by-products constitute 54 percent of the total diet of animals, protein meals 6 percent, compounded cattle feed 13 percent, and cultivated green fodders, seasonal grasses, and tree leaves the remaining 26 percent. According to the NITI Aayog report the gap the country has between the requirement and the availability is 21 percent in dry fodder, 40 percent in green fodder, and 38 percent in concentrate. The issues that we need to address to provide adequate nutrition to our large population of cattle and buffaloes include increasing the availability of feeds and fodder, improving the efficiency of utilization of available resources, and advising farmers on ration balancing to optimize production on the available resources. Our compounded cattle feed industry is producing about 7.5 million tonnes of cattle feed, 3.5 million tonnes in the cooperative sector, and 4 million tonnes in the private sector. The cattle feed industry has been growing at a healthy rate of 6 percent annually. The requirement for cattle feed is estimated at 70 million tonnes annually. This means the industry is meeting just 10 percent of the total requirement and thus it has a huge scope for expansion. The current cattle feed manufacturers need to expand their capacity and diversify to meet the increasing demand not only for cattle feed but also for bypass protein feed, calf starter, milk replacer, mineral mixture, medicated feed, urea mineral molasses block, etc. Gujarat-based cooperatives have now huge cattle feed capacity. For example, the Kheda Union has now 2000 tonnes per day feed production capacity plant, and the Banas Union also has 1800 tonnes per day capacity plant, both of which have been producing a variety of feeds meeting farmers’ demands. In the private sector, Cargill has built a large cattle feed production capacity in Haryana and Punjab and has been producing a variety of products. The Area under green fodder cultivation is estimated around 8-9 million hectares or 4.9 percent of the gross cropped area, the coverage which has remained static for the last 25 years. And it is not likely to increase in the future. To increase green fodder production, therefore, it is imperative to improve fodder productivity per hectare with the use of quality fodder seeds. At present, about 25 percent of fodder seeds used are of improved variety. The major fodder crops cultivated in India include maize, bajra, lucerne, berseem, sorghum, and oats as an improved variety of fodder seeds for these crops are easily available. GoI under its National Livestock Mission has incentivized institutions and entrepreneurs for strengthening the fodder seed production chain i.e. breeder, foundation, and certified seeds and produce quality fodder seeds. Silage making and supplying it in a packed form is getting popular in many places. Many entrepreneurs have taken up silage making as their business and selling silage to farmers through retail shops. Even green paddy stubbles and vegetable waste could be used for making silage. Some entrepreneurs have also ventured into making hay and selling it in a bail or pallet form. GoI in its National Livestock Mission has been promoting these activities with good results. Dry fodder availability is surplus in some states and deficit in others. Transport of dry fodder increases the cost and hence farmers, particularly in states like Punjab, and Hariana prefer to burn it. We need to find innovative ways to harvest stubbles of wheat and rice after harvesters are used and convert them into blocks or pallets after adding concentrate and other supplements. NDDB in its NDP has demonstrated these concepts in the field that these could be done. With many farmers increasing their herd size in many places with limited land resources feeding Total Mixed Ration(TMR) is gaining popularity. TMR is a mixture of green fodder/silage, roughages, concentrates, and feed supplements in a mash or packed form providing all the required nutrients in a balanced manner. We need to encourage entrepreneurs to set up TMR Units where they store all ingredients of TMR i.e. green fodder/ silage, roughages, concentrates, and supplements, and make total mixed ration as per the requirement of individual dairy farmers and sell it in a mash or packed form. This is an emerging concept and some cattle feed manufacturers are setting up the required facilities for making and selling TMR. GoI in its National Livestock Mission has also an incentive scheme for entrepreneurs to set up TMR units. Advising farmers on Ration Balancing: Animals should get the required energy, protein, minerals, and vitamins from dry fodders, green fodders, concentrates, mineral supplements, etc. in appropriate quantities enabling them to perform optimally and be healthy. NDDB has developed an application as part of INAPH which could be used to advise farmers to balance their ration. Under NDP-I, some 28 lakh animals had received advice on rationbalancing covering 33000 villages in 18 states. In this program, feeding balanced ration it was observed that there was an increase in milk yield and fat percentage and a decrease in feed cost with an average increase in benefit of Rs. 26 per day per animal.
Strengthening animal health services
Keeping animals healthy is another important means to achieve the expected increase in the productivity of cattle and buffaloes.
Veterinary infrastructure
The country has a huge veterinary infrastructure and manpower. There are 38,903 Veterinary Institutions (VI) comprising 12,452 Veterinary Hospitals/polyclinics and 26,451 Veterinary Dispensaries. In addition, there are 29,790 stockmen centres. The infrastructure needs to be strengthened and the people managing the infrastructure need to be geared up to provide efficient veterinary health services to keep our vast bovine population healthy. Many Veterinary institutions often lack basic amenities and a few are equipped with clinical diagnostic facilities. As a result, the treatment offered by qualified veterinarians is mostly empirical and the quality is at times only marginally better than that of a para-vet or a quack. Inadequate diagnostic facilities also lead to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics and other medicine which finally get into milk and meat as drug residues leading to a range of problems in consumers like the emergence of drug-resistant strains of bacteria, cancer, allergy, reproductive disorders, etc. This vast infrastructure of VIs is often difficult to sustain it. More than 80-85 percent of the annual non-plan state budget of animal husbandry departments is spent on salaries and other establishment costs with little left for medicine, and very often farmers pay for the medicine used. All curative veterinary services fall into the category of private goods and there is a good rationale for promoting private veterinary services and the government infrastructure and manpower to be used for diagnostics and preventive veterinary healthcare services and control, containment, and eventual eradication of economically important diseases. The existing VIs in the country are supported by some 250 state-level diagnostic laboratories. The laboratory support base for the veterinary institutions is very inadequate and needs to be increased considerably to improve the quality of veterinary services being provided. In addition to state laboratories, there is one Central Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at IVRI, Izatnagar, and five Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratories at Kolkata (Eastern), Pune (Western), Jalandhar (Northern), Bengaluru (Southern) and Guwahati (North-eastern) to provide referral diagnostic services. The networking of these laboratories has also been initiated for better coordination and efficient disease diagnosis, monitoring, and reporting. A High-Security Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (HSADL) with biosecurity level 4 (BSL-4) has been established at Bhopal. Four BSL-3 laboratories are being established at Bangalore, Pune, Guwahati, and Bareilly and the existing 23 State level animal disease diagnostic laboratories are also in the process of being upgraded to BSL-2. The key challenge, however, is the non-availability of standardized diagnostic kits for many diseases and the non-existence of laboratory accreditation, essential for ensuring rapid, accurate, and reliable diagnosis. The Animal Quarantine and Certification Services offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru provide all quarantine services for the import and export of animals and animal products. The country is mostly self-sufficient in vaccines and therapeutics for most diseases. The requirement for vaccines for FMD and brucellosis however is likely to go up many folds with continuing implementation of the disease control programs for FMD and brucellosis.
Control of economically important diseases
Under Livestock Health & Disease Control Programme (LHDCP) GoI has been supporting vaccination against FMD and brucellosis. A large-scale vaccination is being carried out under these programs. FMD vaccination started in January 2020. In Round I, 16.91 crore cattle and buffaloes were vaccinated, whereas in Round II 20.77 crore animals were vaccinated. Vaccination Round III is in progress. Under the brucellosis control program, some 1.62 crore 4-8 months female bovine calves had been vaccinated till January 2023. The other economically important diseases that cause huge economic losses are mastitis, HS, BQ, infertility, parasitism, Leptospirosis, and Tuberculosis (TB). It is felt that controlling these diseases would substantially reduce the losses in the dairy sector. Some of these diseases like Brucellosis, Leptospirosis & TB are also important due to their zoonotic nature. The enactment of the Prevention and Control of Infectious and Contagious Diseases in Animals Act in 2009 and the subsequent framing of Rules (Prevention and Control of Infectious and Contagious Diseases in Animals Rules, 2010) by the central government are expected to provide a legal framework for implementation of any disease control program in the country. The rule empowers the government machinery for compulsory vaccination, disease reporting, movement control, and quarantine of animals among other things.
Food security and animal welfare
Veterinary drug residues in animal products, especially milk and meat, are something that requires serious contemplation. Though there are standards for withdrawal periods for various drugs before milk from the animal can be used, it is hardly followed in our country. The situation gets further aggravated due to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics for therapeutics and at times for prophylaxis, which could lead to a range of problems in the consumers as stated earlier like the emergence of drug-resistant strains of bacteria, cancer, allergy, reproductive disorders, hepatotoxicity, etc. This malady can only be dealt with by strict implementation of the set standards, proper awareness creation, and monitoring. Keeping an animal comfortable by meeting its individual needs for nutrition, shelter, health, and avoidance of undue pain and suffering are the main concerns of animal welfare. It is also a known fact that keeping animals comfortable would have a positive effect on milkproduction. The concept of animal welfare cannot be seen in isolation. It should form an integral part of all the animal husbandry programs that are envisaged.
Enhancing knowledge and skill at all levels
Dairy farming is likely to move from the current smallholder, subsistence level to a bit larger herd size and towards a commercial activity. Youths that are disillusioned with dairying could be brought back into dairy farming by making dairying a commercial activity, a profitmaking unit. To make this happens, we would need to create an ecosystem through which youths can get all help to increase herd size, gradually mechanize farming activities, get the required skill and knowledge to manage larger herds profitably, and earn decent earning from dairying. At present, we have few institutions where youths can get hands-on training on modern dairy farming. All institutions connected with dairying should think about setting up dairy farming consultancy units like the one demonstrated by GCMMF to assist youths to establish and operate modernized dairy farms.
Institution building
Mere strengthening of existing institutions would not be enough; the country would need to think about evolving professional organizations that commit themselves to building a strong infrastructure and take up programs on scientific principles to bring about sustainable genetic change in the population, to increase the availability of feed and fodder resources and create an advisory network to advise on balanced ration and to extend veterinary health services to protect animals against diseases. This would also entail strong capacity-building programs and an infrastructure for scientific research to offer solutions to practical problems. The research institutions in the country are not actively working with the industry. The systems of measurement, data collection, and taking decisions on reliable data in the area of animal genetics, nutrition, and health care are very weak. No regulatory systems are in place to control productivity enhancement products and services. It is necessary to create governance capacity in these areas.
Conclusions
The country has built a good infrastructure for the genetic improvement of animals. The genetic improvement programs initiated for various breeds have been making available the required high-genetic bulls for semen production. These programs now need to be sustained for a long time. The coverage of cattle and buffaloes under AI needs to be accelerated to ensure steady genetic progress in the vast population of cattle buffaloes in the country. There are great challenges in enhancing the availability of feed and fodder resources and advising farmers to feed balanced rations to their animals. The infrastructure of veterinary health needs to be further strengthened and the control programs initiated for FMD and brucellosis need to be continued and strategies and programs need to be established for other economically important diseases such as mastitis, HS, BQ, infertility, parasitism, Leptospirosis, and Tuberculosis (TB). A lot needs to be done to impart knowledge and skill at all levels to brace for addressing future increasingly difficult challenges.
