Among the initiatives in the State Budget to salvage the declining stock of indigenous cattle is the use of ‘sexed semen’.
Through high-speed cell sorters that checks for X-chromosome (for female livestock) and Y-chromosome (for males), sexed semen (which is more expensive than conventional livestock sperm) can be used to produce offspring of the desired sex. The budget proposed provides sexed semen tubes at 50 per cent subsidy under the Central assistance programme.
At a recent national seminar here, agriculturists and scientists stressed the need for importing or adapting this technology for indigenous cattle and buffaloes. They pressed for using the technology for marginal cattle farmers, who will need a way to sustain the dwindling numbers of their stock. “Due to increasing farm mechanisation, it is becoming clear that males of livestock species are unwanted. Instead, sexed semen technology will allow for increasing the desired sex — females — to aid milk productivity of the farmer,” said K.P. Ramesha, Principal Scientist, National Dairy Research Institute of India.
Used in the West nearly 50 years ago, selective breeding has seen the average yield of exotic breeds such as Jersey cows increase from 2,000 kg of milk a year to 8,000 kg of milk.
