Way Forward in Reproduction for Increasing Productivity of Dairy Animals
Sarvpreet Singh Ghuman*, Mrigank Honparkhe and Amarjeet Bisla Department of Veterinary Gynaecology and Obstetrics College of Veterinary Science Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab
Dairying has become an important secondary source of income for households engaged in livestock and agriculture and the government views growth in the dairy industry as one route to fulfilling a pledge to double farmers’ incomes, as well as contribute to national GDP. There has been decline in the percentage of agriculture and allied sector GDP to the total GDP of the country from 34.72 percent in 1980-81 to 11.06 percent in 2020-21. While in contrast to these figures, percent share of livestock sector in agriculture GDP has increased to two folds i.e. from 13.88 in 1980-81 to 30.87 in 2020-21(BAHS, 2022). Livestock population in India has increased from 419.6 million in 1982 to 535.8 million in 2019. There has been upsurge in the bovine population from 288.8 million in 1997 to 302.3 million in 2019 out of which 243.4 million is breedable (Livestock Census, 2019). India is largest producer of milk in the world however, per animal productivity is very low (1990.75 kg per animal per year) than the rest of world average (2321.65 kg per animal per year) during 2020- 21 (FAOSTAT, 2021). The major reasons for the poor productivity of animals are deficient supplies of feeds, poor feeding practices, poor genetics and lack of reproductive efficiency of the animals due to unplanned breeding (Intodia, 2017). Reproductive efficiency is the basic to the success of any dairy farming enterprise One of the most important reproductive technologies implemented by the dairy is artificial insemination (AI).Since, the advent of artificial insemination (AI) in 1960s in India, the coverage of AI is about 32% of the breedable population with much disparity ranging from 1% in Arunachal Pradesh to 100% in Kerala (BAHS, 2022) as compared to the developed countries having more than 95% AI coverage since 2000s (Thibier and Wagner, 2002). In India about 779.24 lakhs artificial inseminations are performed at 99,410 artificial insemination centers, (BAHS, 2022). Table 1 clearly shows the changes in breedable population in India in last two census.
Poor reproductive efficiency in dairy animals, besides direct and indirect losses to farmers, also hinders genetic improvement. Major issues of concern in buffaloes are delayed onset of puberty, poor signs of estrus, seasonal suppression of reproductive activity, poor libido in buffalo bulls and poor fertilizability of spermatozoa. About one third buffalo bulls exhibit poor libido which is an impediment in semen collection. About 50% crossbred bulls fail to produce semen of freezable quality. Attempts should be made to develop optimal buffalo semen freezing protocols to address issues related to cryo-injury and capacitation. Endocrine and nutritional interventions for hastening the onset of puberty, improving fertility especially during summer and protocol for synchronized estrus in late pubertal and anestrus buffaloes should be developed. In addition to this, following are the strategies which may achieve higher performance at farm level and ultimately benefit the farmers in economic terms.
Strategies for Enhancing Productivity of Dairy Animals
- Implement Bovine Breeding Act: It is very important that every state should implement bovine breeding act strictly for maintaining and developing different breeds of cattle and buffaloes in different agro-climatic zones of the state and a mechanism for enforcement of these policies in the state should also be developed. There is need of strict implementation of the laws related to animal rearing by deputing technical advisors.
- Encourage Pure breeding and stop Cross Breeding: Out of 302 Million bovines, 49.47 percent bovines are of non-descript breeds. Under cattle category, 52.00 percent are of non-descript while under buffalo, 45.4 percent are non-descript as per the breed survey, 2022. The share of non-descript cattle has declined from 58 percent to 52 percent whereas nondescript buffalo has increased from 43.37 percent to 45.40percent from 2012 to 2019. States like M.P., West Bengal and Bihar have highest nondescript cattle population while M.P., Rajasthan and Bihar have highest nondescript buffalo population (Breed Survey Book, 2022). Crossbreeding of animals must be strictly stopped with only allowing pure breeding so that true breed animals with high genetic potential are selected.
- Production and Supply of Superior Genetic Merit Bulls/Semen Bulls: There are 99,410 AI centres and 56 semen production centres which performs 7.79 crores artificial insemination throughout the years (BAHS, 2022). There is a huge gap in breedable population and AI performed as only 32% bovines are artificially inseminated. The practice of AI should be increased with coverage of at least 70% of breedable bovine population which could be possible with increased production of more frozen semen doses, more AI technicians with proper training. India has 243.4 million breedable population (Livestock Census, 2019), which requires frozen semen of high genetic merit bulls for upliftment of production in cattle and buffaloes. Continuous supply of superior genetic merit bulls must be ensured for breeding purpose and producing frozen semen doses. An average of 25000-30000 frozen doses can be made from bull of superior genetic merit in a year. So, roughly about 8850 number of high genetic merit bulls is required to meet annual demand of frozen semen. Such number can be met through multiple bull mother farms throughout the country as there is large gap between the semen produced and semen requirement. In addition to this, also need availability of adequate well-trained AI technicians to increase the AI coverage.
• Focus on Genomic Selection of Animals: The genomic selection of animals must be validated based on the production and reproduction related traits and data of genomic chips must be assessed on larger sample size. This genomic selection can help in the selection of animals at early age based on some genomic markers. The techniques like OPU-IVF technique should be adopted in cattle and buffaloes at a larger scale as it has more promising results and also reduces the generation interval with production of more animals of higher genetic potential.
• Fixed timed artificial insemination (FTAI) protocols: Fixed timed artificial insemination (FTAI) protocols (estrus synchronization) using various hormones must be regularly used at field level in order to reduce postpartum anestrus and thereby, reducing inter calving period. These techniques costing from INR 700-1500 can reduce the economic losses occurring to dairy farmers due to loss of reproductive cycles. Use of FTAI protocols can also help in treating the conditions like delayed puberty, anovulation, delayed ovulation as well as cystic ovarian follicles in cattle as well as buffaloes (Ghuman et al., 2010; 2011; 2012a; 2012b; Honparkhe et al., 2011; Singh et al., 2012; Karuppanasamy et al., 2017; Lochan et al., 2020).
• Organize Regularly State/National level Milking Competitions to Identify Good Genetic potential: The government needs to encourage organizing regular state/ national level milking competitions to identify highest productive animals. Incentives to farmers for registration under milk recording and special incentive/certificate to elite animals with high yield. Inseminating such animals with progeny tested bulls only.
• Implement digitalized record keeping at dairy farms: In India, record keeping at dairy farms is not prevalent. Digitalization of record keeping should be encouraged .It is a way to breed improvement in all dairy breeds of animals is to establish bull selection indices, generate robust data on these indices, rigid progeny testing protocols and using progeny tested bulls as widely as possible.
• Appoint specialist’s cadres at the semen stations, animal farms and diagnostic laboratories: There are 67,784 veterinary practitioners serving livestock sector (Press Information Bureau Govt. of India, 2016). A veterinary practitioner generally caters to 7918.6 livestock covering the area of 48.49 sq. km. while a veterinary institution serves 47.8 sq. km. of area. Under such situations providing regular service to farmer is almost impossible. In addition to this there is need of specialist cadre to deal with needs of the farmers.
• Establish government supported demo model dairy farms: Dairy production system involves dairy animals integrated with crops. These systems vary as a function of intensity of farming operations.
The prevailing dairy production systems in India fall into one of four categories which are as follows:
1. Landless/ Domestic Farmers (average size 1 to 2).
2. Small and Medium Rural Dairy Farmers (Less than 10 animals).
3. Large/Commercial Dairy Farms (size varies from 10 to 500 animals):
4. Peri Urban Dairy Farms (Mixed farming with 20-100 animals).
GADVASU in his survey report found out that dairy farm with less than 7 animals is non-viable. The government subsidies should not be provided below the minimum farm size and on same pattern model dairy farms should be established (Kaur and Singh, 2014).
• Sustain Buffalo farming by Promoting Male Calf Rearing, Value Addition of Milk and Pricing System: India has realized the importance of buffalo meat to earn foreign exchange. However, till date majority low-quality tough buffalo meat produced largely from spent and unproductive dairy buffaloes which is exported to low- and middleincome developing countries. As total buffalo population has increased to 109.8 million out of which 5.69 million were male buffalo calves. There is need to encourage the rearing of buffalo males calves through government support programmes. The buffalo calves, with a feed conversion ratio (FCR) of 6.0 to 6.5 will take 14-16 months to grow from 50 Kg to 350 kg with selling price of around Rs.30, 000. This will provide a decent margin of about Rs 6000-8000 per calf for the farmer. In addition to this,Value addition of milk (like mozerella cheese and traditional dairy products) is also an important component for sustaining buffalo farming. By adding the value to the milk, farmer can increase the profit by 25 percent (Kaur et al., 2021). In addition to this, there is need to correct the pricing system based on far and SNF in the country. Faulty pricing has encouraged adulteration with water, and fat & SNF from non-milk sources. Milk proteins are more valuable
• Investment in Dairy sector: There is need to invest in infrastructure and manpower for large scale adoption of ETT, OPU-IVF and sexed semen. The allocations to the budget are very low for the same to achieve. Livestock sector is being allocated a meager allocation of around 0.14 percent in the total union budget allocations in last five years (Various Union Budgets, Ministry of Finance (GOI)). There is a dire requirement for increase in the budget allocation for livestock sector to make the investments.
• No proper plan for culling of unproductive dairy cattle leading to havoc of stray cattle population: There is need of proper policy of culling of unproductive animals at national level and it should be same for all the states with strict implementation. Due the absence of policy, the population of stray animals is 50.21 lakhs in livestock census, 2019.
References:
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