Cross-bred cattle strain 'Frieswal' - a review

摘要

The present milk production in the country is 78 million tons. Per capita milk availability comes out to 220 grams against the requirement of 250 gram per day (Nutritional Advisory Committee of Indian Council Medical Research). Poor genetic makeup of Indian cattle is the main reason for this lower production of milk. Crossbreeding has been widely used to improve the genetic make up of the indigenous cattle in last few decades. Few high yielding crossbred strains i.e. Karan Swiss, Karan Fries, Sunandni have also been developed in the country. However, their number is very small and performance is stagnant. An another synthetic crossbred strain, huge in number is being developed by Project Directorate on Cattle (PDC), Meerut, Uttar Pradesh in collaboration with different Military Farms. Difficulties faced in synthesis of former crossbred groups are being removed in the development of Frieswal strain. This strain will definitely be proved as a boon to the country in enhancing the milk production. Details of the Frieswal project have been presented by Singh et al., (1990), Mudgal and Arora (1994) and Mudgal (1995).