Livestock leader UP plans to raise cow count by 10 lakh

LUCKNOW: In the period between May 2023 and March 2024, UP government plans to encourage at least 10 lakh cows to be bred in the state, while number of bulls will be restricted. The aim is to bring those farmers back to cow-rearing who had taken to to rearing buffaloes in the wake of cow slaughter ban in the state, as also to check the menace of stray bulls.
The target will be achieved through artificial insemination in cows using sex-sorted semen, an affordable technique. They will be charged Rs 100, instead of Rs 300 (which was the levy so far), per shot, per animal, under the project ‘mission million sexed AI’. The gender-selection AI technology will ensure 90% calves born are female.
The project was launched in 2018 but so far the number of female calves born was between 40,000 and 70,000. “To increase the population of cows and improve their breed, we have introduced mobile veterinary units for wider coverage,” said Rajneesh Dubey, ACS, Animal Husbandry.
The sex-sorted semen selects the gender of the offspring in advance. In this case, sperms bearing Y-chromosome are eliminated using laser beams and semen with X-chromosome-bearing sperms ensures that only female calves are born. The farmers need to call vets to administer shots to cows and it may take at least three doses to ensure ferilisation.
The sex-sorted semen is obtained from high genetic merit bulls for breed improvement to increase milk production.
With extensive use of tractors, bulls end up as strays. The AI doses are administered to cows pre-selected on the basis of health, breeding history and other indicators. Semen production centres are active in Babugarh, Hapur and Rahmankhera, Lucknow. As per census 2019, UP leads with 190.2 lakh cows and 330 lakh buffaloes, of which 242.4 lakh females are breedable.