Sahiwals Cow's

Sahiwal is indigenous registered breed of cattle among all 37 registered indigenous cattle breeds by NDRI. It's the breed of Punjab. It's milk is said to be more of A2. The quality of milk depends upon the lifestyle available to the cow. It's very popular in news and tv these days as government is supporting his. Like local people, these cows can grow well in their locality and give good produce. Whereas, cow breeds from other regions, countries or farthest states when sshifed over long distance feel more of discomfort hich leads to some problems. So, to handle them, more of facilities, knowledge s required.

Sahiwal is one of the best milk cattle breeds of India. This breed derived from Montgomery District of Punjab in Pakistan. This animal is also known as "Lambi Bar" "Lola" "Montgomery" "Multani" and "Teli" The animals are very good for the specialized dairy purpose. The cow is brownish red in color, shades may vary from red-brown to greyish red. These animals have a well-developed udder, the good slope at the rump and shorter horns. The Average lactation yield of Sahiwal cows is 2325 KG, some selected hers will be having higher productivity. Sahiwal cows were imported by Australia and were used in developing a synthetic crossbred called Australian Milking Zebu Cattle.

The Sahiwal breed originally belongs to the Montgomery tract now in Pakistan. After the partition of India in 1947 very few herds of this breed were left in India. Basically it is a dual purpose breed ie for draft power and milk production. However in India with selective breeding it has been possible to convert this breed into arguably the best indegenous mulch breed. On a comparative basis yields of over 3000 kgs milk in a standard lactation on 305 days have been achieved. The record is however held by the sahiwal cow ‘MUDINI’ of the Military Farms Deptt of the Indian Army which recorded a milk yield of over 6000 kgs milk in 440 days in an extended lactation. However subsequently due to the policy of cross breeding a large number of high yielding sahiwal cows were lost and the thrust shifted to producing cross bred cattle by crossing sahiwal with Holstein friesian to produce the FRIESWAL BREED in Military Farms for achieving a quantum jump in milk productivity over the indigenous breeds.

Now Sahiwal is a very good Indian milk breed. It is way better than any of the Tamil Nadu breeds when it comes to milk yield. Like any native breeds, it has much better thermoregulatory mechanism and hence better heat tolerance to our conditions. But that comes with few strings attached. I will explain. First and foremost aspect a budding dairy farmer has to look for when starting a dairy farm is to assess the local conditions. Since cows do not like heat at all, heat tolerance must be the most essential criteria, especially in a very hot and humid state like ours. So the main indicator you need to look out for is what is called as Temperature Humidity Index (THI). This is how it looks for dairy cattle: