Rathi – The Desert Rani
Amit Saraswat, Santosh Kumar Sharma Krushna, Mohan Beura
Rathi is a mosaic indigenous breed, believed to be evolved from Sahiwal, Tharparkar, Dhanni and Red Sindhi breeds. It is also known as “Desert Rani”. It is believed that the word “Rathi” was coined by the local people in Lunkaransar area of Rajasthan. The actual meaning of Rathi in Marwar language is ‘very docile and calm animal’. While some believes that Rathi name might have originated from a pastoral tribe called Raths who are muslims of Rajput extraction and lead a nomadic life. Home tract of Rathi cattle is mainly Lunkaransar Tehsil of Bikaner district and some area of Ganganagar, Hanumangarh and Churu district of Rajasthan.
The Rathi is medium sized cattle withshort horn or absent horn, straight face, flat forehead, wide eyes, well developed fore and hind quarter, long naval flap. The Rathi cattle are usually brown in color with white patches all over the body. Although some cattle are found to be completely brown or black coat with white patches. The typical characteristics of Rathi cattle is that it easily acclimatized with widerange of climatic condition like chilly winter (20C) to hot summer (500C) and even withstand sand-storm. On an average Rathi cattle produce 5-10 kg milk per day with lactation milk yield ranging from 1500-3000 Kg.
Recognizing the potential of Rathi breed, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) initiated Rathi breed conservation and development programme in Bikaner and Shri Ganganagar districts of Rajasthan since 2002. Under National Dairy Plant Phase-I (NDP-I), a pedigree selection project was implemented by NDDB in the native tract of Rathi during 20112-2019 in association with URMUL trust for genetic improvement of Rathi cattle. The programme has been further continued under Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) scheme of Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying of GoI. The performance of Rathi cattle recorded at the farmers’ herd during NDP- is given in Table 1.The project was implemented in120 villages of Lunkaransar and Chhatargarh Tehsils of Bikaner district. The physical progress of the project till Mar’2020 given in below table.
Table 1: Rathi PS Project: Breeding activity recorded in INAPH’ till Mar 2020
| Breeding activity | Nominated Inseminations | |||||||
| No. of animal registered | No. of AIs | No. of PD done | No. of calving | No. of milk record | No. of animals milk recorded | No. of Nominated AIs | No. of Cow Involved | No. of Bull Involved |
| 67685 | 75916 | 59921 | 23852 | 34048 | 3955 | 1711 | 2,262 | 16 |
The project provided 31 High genetic merit (HGM) bull calves to Bull distribution committee, Govt. of India till Mar 2020 and many more are available in field under disease testing.
Figure 1: Rathi PS Project: Year wise-Breeding activity recorded in INAPH’ till Mar 2020
Figure 2: Rathi PS Project: Year wise-Conception Rate of AI recorded in INAPH’ till 2019
Figure 3: Rathi PS Project: Lactation curve of milk recorded in INAPH’ till Mar 2020
Table 2: Rathi PS Project: Average Production and Reproduction traits
Particulars No of observation in INAPH Average Values
Age at first insemination (month) 194 31
Age at first calving (month) 52 41
Calving interval (month) 1327 14
Gestation Days (days) 16151 286
Service period (days) 694 148
Average Conception Rate 75916 43.2
Average 305 day Milk yield (Kg) 3965 2693
Fat % 2444 3.9
SNF % 2437 8.15
https://www.pashudhanpraharee.com/breeds-of-cattle-in-india/
Table 3: Rathi PS Project: Top 5 AI technicians on basis of Conception Rate of AI recorded in INAPH’ till 2019
Rank Name AI PD+VE CR
1 Manphul Sidh 2407 1261 52.4
2 Rajendra Kumar 1393 721 51.8
3 Vikaram Yadav 1968 1005 51.1
4 Beant Singh 1571 788 50.2
5 Bhajan Lal Dudi 1763 884 50.1
URMUL Rathi Pedigree selection project prides
Our pride: Farmer- Shri Ramkisan S/O Lunaram Jaat Shri Ramkisan is a resident of 3 RJD village of tehsil Chhatargarh of Bikaner district. He is a progressive and hardworking farmer.At present, He is maintaining a herd of 30 animals comprising of Rathi breed. Around 8-10 animals remain in milkthroughout the year. Previously,they used to prefer natural service to get their animals pregnant but later on decided to participatein the pedigree selection project under NDP-I.Initially, he was reluctant to get hisanimalsear tagged due to social taboo. But, after discussion with the project officials, he realized the benefit of AI and Unique identification of animal by ear tagging with 12 digit tag ID, agreed to register his animals in INAPH and even put his animals under milk recording.His change in attitude was an eye opener for other neighboring farmers later, one high genetic merit bull calf born through nominated AI was procured also.
Following the advice from the project officials, he started growing fodder crops to feed his animals. At present, he is selling around 70 Kg of milk per day directly to the private dairy and preparing ghee from milk at home. With the increasing demand for Rathi cattle in country, farmers from different states even approached him for Rathi cows and paid good pricefor his animals.
Now, Sh. Ramkisan along with his wife are leading a happy family life and they feel proud to be part of the project which has improved the socio-economic status of their family.
Our pride: AI Technician (AIT): Shri Bhagirath Kaswan S/O Hansraj Kaswan
Shri Bhagirath is working as AI technician with this project since last 18 years. He is a resident of Dheerdan village of Tehsil Lunkarnsar. Due to his poor financial situation he could not able to continue his education after 10th standard during the year 1996. Then he started working with URMUL dairy as a milk collector. He associated with Rathi breed development project in 2002 and got trained for AI from NDDB training center (Northern Regional Demonstration and Training Centre National Dairy Development Board, Jalandhar) in 2007. After completion of training, he started delivering AI services under the project from 2007 onwards. Currently he is continuing his work under PS RATHI RGM.. Over the years, he has gained experience and competency. The year wise performance of Sh.Bhagirath is presented in adjacent graph.
He has also played a significant role in achieving HGM bull production target under the project.
His long association with project not only helped him to earn livelihood for himself and family but to earn respect within his society and villages.
His long association and contribution to the project is inspiration to other AIT. With his dedication, hard work in the project, he has become a role model for the other AITS working in the project.
https://www.dairyknowledge.in/article/rathi
