Vol. 10, Special Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
Dr. P Ravi and Dr. AKS Tomar

Abstract:
Disposal trend of crossbred cattle and Murrah buffaloes over 36 years (1969-2004) was investigated at Livestock Production Management, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar (UP). Of the total, 93.52% animals were disposed off from the herd due to various reasons like death (28.40%), culling (20.75%), transfer (39.92%) stillbirths (3.28%) and sacrifice (0.88%). Within the three major groups i.e., halfbred cattle group (HBC), higher crossbred grades (HCS) and Murrah buffaloes (MUB) significant differences (P<0.05) in various types of disposal modes were observed. Within the total disposal, maximum contribution was made by transfer (33.01% in MUB to 41.73% in HCG) and significant difference existed among all the three groups/species. The second most important factor which contributed to total disposal after transfer was death and differences in mortally rates were significant among the groups, though, HCG and HUB and HUB expressed almost similar mortality rate (around 30%). Halfbred cattle (25.57%) were superior to rest of the both groups with respect to mortality percentage. Higher mortality rate in cattle crosses with more than 50% exotic inheritance may be due to increased exotic inheritance. Culling rate among the different genetic groups of crossbred cattle ranged from 17.83% (JFH) to 29.17% (BH). Culling was the third most important contributory factor to the total disposal and it ranged from 18.56% (in HCG) to 25.65% (HBC). The present study was concluded that practical herd management programme will ultimately reduce the undesirable disposal from the herd and this in turn will be reflected into formation of superior crossbred cattle and Murrah buffalo herd.