7 Exotic Cross Breeding Techniques for Dairy Farming in India

What are the most exotic Cross Breeding Techniques for Dairy Farming in India ?

As discussed in the earlier article on crossbred cows , Cross breeding” means mating the animals of different species to produce progeny or use their semen to produce crossbred off springs.

What is Cross Breeding?

“Cross breeding” means mating the animals of different species to produce progeny or use their semen to produce crossbred off springs. The main idea behind cross breeding of animals is to produce an offspring that has the best qualities of both the parents. In India cross breeding of cattle started in 1875, by using Shorthorn bull on local cows and producing “Taylor” breed of cow.

There are many crossbreeds in of cattle and buffaloes used for Dairy Farming in India.

Which are the different breeds of cows in India used for Crossbreeding ?

With the advent of new technologies, scientists took the process of crossbreeding further and crossbreeding of indigenous cows like Sahiwal,  Gir, Hariana, Kankrej and Red  Sindhi cows with exotic breeds like Holestein Friesian, Jersey and Brown Swiss Sires was carried out.

With the advancement of science, many new techniques of cross breeding came into existence. Earlier, it was important for the dairy farmers to maintain the pure bred bulls and cows in their farms to produce progeny of the two. Now the times have changed. The same can be done with the help of artificial insemination etc. This article gives a detailed description about the new cross breeding techniques and the other associated procedures.

What are the factors affecting Cross Breeding for Dairy Farming in India

Before we start with the cross breeding techniques, it is important for the dairy farmers to understand the factors affecting the cross breeding of cattle: (source here) Following are the factors to be considered.

 

1. Number of Ova: The first and foremost thing on which the fertilization depends is definitely the production of functional ova during the ovulation period. As in case of cows only a single ovum is competent to undergo fertilization for a period of 5-10 hours, it is of extreme importance that the time of mating/insemination is correct.
2. Fertilization percentage: The second most important aspect of cross breeding it the actual fertilization percentage. A number of factors affect the fertilization percentage such as low sperm count or low vitality of sperm, correct mating time or insemination etc.
3. Age at the time of first pregnancy: It is important for the dairy farmers to understand that a dairy cow should neither be bred too early or too late for the first time. As being bred early may leave the animal stunted for the first lactation whereas being bred late may negatively affect the breeding capacity of the animal.
4. Frequency of pregnancy: Generally the cows can be rebred after 9-12 of parturition. Further, it is advisable to start breeding at the right age and rebreed the cows at earliest as it enhances the breeding efficiency of the animals.
5. Embryonic death: A number of factors may contribute to embryonic death such as lack of nutrition, infection in uterus, hormonal imbalance or deficiency, accidents in development, over-crowding in uterus etc.
6. Body Condition score: The dairy farmers must ensure that the body condition score of the animal is just right to give birth to the progeny. The weight of the cows must be monitored throughout the pregnancy. It is difficult to correct the body weight of an animal that is in the last trimester of the pregnancy. Thus, it must be ensured before breeding that the cow is neither too thin nor too over weight at the time of conception.

Different Kinds of Cross Breeding Techniques

Cross breeding of cattle may be between two breeds or more than two breeds also know as hybrid vibgyor. The types of cross breeding are given below:

IN-BREEDING:

The first type of cross breeding is called in-breeding. It the age old method used by dairy farmers for the purpose of breeding. In other words, in-breeding may be defined as the mating of closely related animals or those who have more common ancestors.

Coefficient of in-breeding is usually used as a measure of in-breeding.

Though in-breeding helps in developing homozygous pure line of animals, it may also lead to reduced fertility and productivity of the animal. This is known as in-breeding depression.  This is one of the reasons behind low productivity of Indian Milch cattle over the years.

Further, as in-breeding helps in discovering the undesirable recessive genes and eliminating them, it also makes the animals more susceptible to the diseases.

In- breeding is further divided into two types:

a) CLOSED BREEDING:

Mating full brothers to full sisters or off springs to parents or close relatives is known as closed breeding.

b) LINE BREEDING:

Line breeding may be defined as mating of one outstanding ancestor with others of the family. It is done to carry forward the desirable characteristics of some favoured animals into the progeny, till it is possible.

OUT BREEDING:

As the name suggests out breeding means mating unrelated animals. It is the opposite of in-breeding.

Now, out breeding can be further divided into 6 forms viz.:

a) Pure Breeding:

When two animals of same breed are crossed, it is known as line breeding for example, mating a jersey bull and jersey cow. It is usually done for the breeding of pure breed bulls or for the purpose creating the next line of pure bred bulls.

b) Line Breeding:

It is actually a method of reducing the risks involved in in-breeding of animals. The same is done by accumulating multiple crosses of one or more superior ancestors, typically at the fifth generation and beyond. The method is directed towards the goal of weeding out the undesirable traits over several generations and keeping the beneficial genes of superior ancestor.

c) Cross breeding:

As the name suggests it is the crossing of different breeds of animals to produce a progeny that has the superior traits of both the breeds. This is mainly done in the country to enhance the milk productivity of the animals. The different breeds commonly crossed in the country are mentioned in the previous article on types of Crossbred Cows in India .

This type of breeding helps in transferring the traits of exotic cows to the progeny that the indigenous cows don’t have.

d) Out crossing:

It is the case where totally unrelated pure bred animals are crossed. The animals do not have common ancestry for about 4 to 6 generations. It is also a form of pure breeding and used mainly to genetic improvement.

e) Grading up:

This is actually a method of grading up the breeds or in other words it can be simply put as a process where the progeny of crossed breeds (exotic breed and indigenous breed) are again crossed with each other in order to upgrade the off springs. By the time 5-6 generations are crossed, the new breed is quite similar to the exotic breed.