Guest guest Posted March 29, 2001 Report Share Posted March 29, 2001 - ISCOWP (Balabhadra Dasa & Chaya Dasi - USA) <ISCOWP (AT) pamho (DOT) net> Cow (Protection and related issues) <Cow (AT) pamho (DOT) net> Wednesday, March 21, 2001 6:24 PM India's oxen > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="x-user-defined" > > "Pancaratna ACBSP" <Pancaratna.ACBSP (AT) pamho (DOT) net> > > "Abhirama (das) ACBSP (Mayapur Development)" <Abhirama.ACBSP (AT) pamho (DOT) net>; > "kusha" <vrinda (AT) aol (DOT) com>; "Cow (Protection and related issues)" <Cow (AT) pamho (DOT) net> > > nice article on India's oxen > > Wednesday, November 29, 2000 7:40 PM > > The June 15 issue of Down To Earth focused on draught animals. Very good > > articles to support cow protection. > > http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20000615/dte_cover.htm > > http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20000615/dte_life.htm > > Your servant, > > Pancaratna das > > India Carriers Inc > > Beyond the cows-on-the-city-street cliché lies the pride of India's cattle > breeders. Sopan Joshi gets introduced to some of the world's most outstanding > draught cattle breeds > > The gathering is a strange mix of cultures, a capsular representation of > India's cultural and biological diversity. It is January 26, 2000, and the > National Livestock and Poultry Show is underway on the grounds outside New > Delhi's Pragati Maidan. It bears the mark of a typical government event, > reminding the urban Indian mind of the days when Doordarshan was the only > television channel and every evening meant `Krishi Darshan', the dreadfully > boring programme on agriculture. Announcers at the fair use stock phrases and > common lines out of cheap poetry. > > > Ongole (top) is one of world's oldest, tallest and hardiest cattle breeds. Lord > Shiva's bull Nandi (above) is an Ongole > > > And then he appears. His cotton lungi rolled up to the knees, a blue, tattered > check shirt, bare feet and a white cloth tied around the head, a sad excuse for > a turban. He stops you, pointing to the brochure in your hand. It is a handout > from the animal husbandry department of Andhra Pradesh, bearing a picture of a > bull. > > With shimmering eyes and white teeth that contrast with a dark face, the man > speaks something in Telugu. Then reason gets the better of excitement. He > resorts to a mixture of gestures and words that a north Indian may comprehend. > "Srinivasan Reddy," says he, with a hand beating his chest. Okay, that's his > name. "Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh," he utters, with a hand pointing > southwards, where home is. "Ongole," he points to the picture of the bull, > after having snatched the brochure. "Hamara" (ours), he concludes in Hindi. And > disappears in the din. > > So, what's special about this Ongole? "It is the tallest, hardiest cattle breed > of the world, and has been around since the early days of civilisation," says > Kethineni Venkateswarulu, a farmer from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. How > does he know? "The sculptures on the walls of ancient temples show Ongole > bulls," he explains. With pride breaking through the innumerable wrinkles on > his modest face, he tells you that Lord Shiva, the mightiest Hindu god who is > beyond time and space, rides an Ongole. Nandi? Yes, the most famous bull of > India, depicted in statues outside millions of temples of Lord Shiva, is an > Ongole. Now, how many Hindus know that? > > And then the farmer shows his prize pair of bullocks. Both are well over six > feet (about two metres) in height. They can plough 6-7 acres (2.5-2.8 hectares) > of land in one day or pull a cart with four tonnes of load. Why doesn't he use > a tractor? "Only the rich farmers can afford tractors. Ongole cattle need very > little fodder if you consider their size." Another farmer who owns prize Ongole > bulls says a team of breeders from Brazil visiting the fair offered Rs 2 lakh > for each of his bulls. "They use this breed for beef because it grows big so > very fast, eats so little and has a lot of resistance to disease. They buy off > the best animals at fairs like this. But it is different for us. These bulls > help me earn my living," says Venkateswarulu. Comment: Ongole in the west is called Nellore and is the ancestor of the modern Brahmin cattle breeds like the Brangus, Santa Gertrudis etc. The Bos indicus breeds are properly called Cebu or Zebu and consist of about 30 distinct types with different graduations between the major breeds. The American Brahmin ancestry rest on it Bos taurus bloodlines that are usually Hereford and Shorthorn, and on its Bos indicus ancestry which is made up of the Gir, Kankrej (Gujarat), Mysore and the Ongole (Nellore). The female offspring of this first cross (F1) are then bred to an taurean bull to produce the second generation (F2) and the final or third generation (F3) of females are bred to an indicus bull (usually the Ongole) to produce the final American brahman. In the case of Brangus the taurean bull used is Aberdeen Angus, is used on cows with Shorthorn and Gujarat bloodlines, the females calves are breed to a bull of the Ongole bloodlines. This produces a thrifty animal that is of large scale and gains weight easily for the western meat consumer. > If you think that only the poor take interest in animals, think again. Meet > Rajiv Khurana, second-generation cattle breeder and director of the Indo > Dairyherd Improvement Centre in Rohtak, Haryana, which he claims was India's > first bank for frozen bovine semen in the private sector. He has a passion for > the Sahiwal cattle breed and the Murrah breed of buffalo, both native to > Punjab. With all the looks of the urban rich, Khurana's sons Abhijeet, 9, and > Yuvaraj, 7, wear jeans, Nike sneakers, snazzy pullovers and talk in public > school English. They take you to Raja, a huge Sahiwal bull, and explain the > nuances of animal care as if it is a math sum that they have solved. Khurana > says Sahiwal is one of the best milch breeds in the world, and the government > has done nothing to preserve it - on the contrary, its crossbreeding programmes > have actually polluted the best Sahiwal strains in the country, he says. Animal > husbandry officials are wary of him and say that he is a clever businessman. He > buys any good animals that he spots and makes their semen available in his > bank. > Comment: There is a research station near Puna (Maharastra) that has been using AI semen for about the last thirty years, in the beginning they tried to upgrade (in their eyes) the milking capabilities of the Indian breeds by taking the best adapted (to the Indian climate) of animals of three major European breeds (Friesland, Jersey and Brown Swiss) and breeding them to animals of the Gir, Kankrej and Sahiwali. The results were not to promising as the animals of European ancestry could only produce large amounts of milk with abundant high quality feed and suffered from heat exhaustion and insects. So then they concentrated on selecting the better producers of the native blood and now maintain large herds in the surrounding country of those breeds. In Rajkot in the Saurastra area of the State of Gujarat, the Raj owns a large herd of Gir that has been kept pure for centuries and is the basis for many pure bred Gir found not only in India but in Brazil and many other countries of the world. He also owns a small herd of Kankrej (they come from north of his realm on the edge of the deserts -Rann of Kutch) and a large stable of horses of a highly refined type of Indian Arab that is similar to the Lipizzan of Austria (they are a white riding horse and have been used by the Raj to pull small carriages as well). > The Deoni breed (right) of Latur district is a result of careful breeding of > the Dangi breed of Nasik (top) with the Gir cattle of Gujarat (left) > > > Meanwhile, Balasaheb Vikhe Patil, the Union minister of state for finance and > member of Parliament from Nasik in Maharashtra, has arrived on a customary > visit. The entire officialdom starts walking behind him in obeisance. He > addresses Manik Nivrati Yadav, a farmer from Hasegaonwadi village in Ausa > taluka of Latur district, Maharashtra. Yadav's huge bull, named Raja, has a > black head, while the rest of the body is white. This breed is called Deoni. Comment: This is not the normal Deoni coloration, most are coloured like the Dalmatian dogs, small spots with equal amounts of black and white over the whole body. Normally the animals have black noses, horns and hoofs. This colour was specifically selected as the red Gir coloration is a dominant colour. Only black animals were kept in the breeding population any animal with red coloration was not kept. These animals still keep the mark that identifies an animal of Gir ancestry, they possess a spot on their body where the colour, though the same is of a different shade. I have animals with this spot even though they are only 1/8 Gyr (one great grandparent being Gir the other seven are of non-Gir origin). > But the minister is not interested in the animal. Speaking in Marathi, he asks > Yadav: "Aren't there tractors in your region? Do you still want to own > bullocks?" His hands folded in a servile gesture that has become almost > congenital in rural India after being handed down several generations, Yadav > replies: "We can't do without these animals, saheb, tractors or no tractors." > > After the minister leaves, Yadav quips: "Tractors don't give milk, and they > don't run on crop residue. Our area is hilly, and animals provide traction in > places where tractors can't even reach. Raja is a prize bull. He can pull as > much as two average bulls and his mother used to give 15 litres of milk per > day. Apart from the cash prizes he wins, a lot of farmers get their cows mated > with him. I earn Rs 50 per service. He may look big but he's never hurt a soul. > My little son, much too young to have a driver's licence, can handle Raja. Most > of all, a tractor can never return the affection and loyalty that Raja gives my > family." Yadav spreads a sheet on the ground, pats Raja, and implores him to > sit. Raja obliges. Comment: I have one ox (castrated him when he was twelve, now fifteen) who when he was a bull would lie down, allow calves to crawl on him and chew on his long ears. Bala is now kept with a big herd of about 80 animals, when I walk into the field where they are kept he immediately comes searching for attention. His half sister Usha, also of the same age and in the same field wants so much to be petted that she will follow you everywhere attempting to get her head, ears etc scratched. You can only escape her by leaving the field, where she stands watching you until you are out of sight before she leaves. Both are part Gir, Bala's mother is of Kankrej blood and Usha's mother is from a mixed breed from Brazil called Indu-Brazil (Kankrej-Gir-Mysore). We have another half brother, Deva who is full Gir who is not approachable, he is not vicious but is of a very aloft nature. He and Bala where bulls for twelve years, Bala is very gregarious and Deva is a loner. Deva I always treat with caution. He comes when called, but makes it known that he is independent and is doing so out of his mercy. Our herd of Zebu crosses (about 40) are descendants of these three animals. We have five full Zebu, these three, a cow from Bala and Usha named Subhru and an ox, Subhru's full brother, named Ananta Sesa. These Zebu cows (Usha and Subhru) are very private animals I have never seen them mate during the day, rarely have I seen them in heat. Subhru is now eight and has never been bred (never had access to a bull), when Usha was younger and with the bulls she would produce a calf every year. Her teats are very large (2 1/2 inch diameter and 4 inches in length), so much so that her calves could not drink from her. All her five calves had to be separated from her and bottle feed or suckled on a nurse cow. She would not allow anyone to come near her calves and would avoid you for at least half a year after you took her calves away. Because of this I was never able to milk her, she would dry her self up and get pregnant again shortly after. Subhru (8yrs.) and Ananta Sesa (5yrs.) are on different householders farms, occasionally Ananta Sesa has access to the big herd where it is obvious that Usha recognizes him. She is very intelligent and has a long memory compared to the other animals we have. > As Yadav gets busy, B S Borgaonkar, a veterinarian and breeder with the state > animal husbandry department in Latur, explains the story behind the Deoni > breed, which has won the national cattle championship 17 times over. "About 100 > years ago, the Nizam of Hyderabad wanted a strong and hardy cattle breed to > haul his army. A facility was set up in Deoni village of what is now > Maharashtra. The Nizam's people got the choicest animals of the Gir breed of > Gujarat, known for its strength, and crossbred it with Dangi, a breed native to > Nasik that is known for being very hardy and possessing good stamina. Through > careful selection of the crossbred animals, a special breed was created and > named after the village of its development. It has all the good qualities of > both the breeds and none of the undesirable ones." > > One may ask, are all native cattle breeds this versatile. No. Some are > extremely specialised. Take Khillar, for example, known as the horse among > cattle - a veritable sports breed. Khillar bulls are raced with horses in parts > of Sholapur district of Maharashtra. The breed is used for quick transport and > is not very good at hauling a lot of weight. It can be marked out by its tall, > slim build, and by its horns, which arch back to its neck and then turn > upwards. "The horns are shaped like the sword of Shivaji Maharaj," points out > Sukhdeo Ranganath Dhole of Pirachi Kuroli village in Pandarpur taluka, Sholapur > district, Maharashtra, drawing attention to the most revered figure of the > state. Comment: These animals are used in the Bombay rathyatra to pull the carts that accompany the ratha cart. Their function is to transport the children and a few women who have become tired but who wish to go with the ratha. Of course they are decorated and their horns and hoofs painted usually a brilliant orange or deep sky blue for the occasion. > The aerodynamic Khillar breed of Sholapur district in Maharashtra is so fast > that it is raced with horses; and > > "If you want to make out the pedigree of Khillar, check the space between the > two horns where they emerge from the head. It should not be wider than two > fingers," he clarifies. Pointing to his Khillar bull named Housha, whose > aerodynamic looks can surely put a scarlet Ferrari to shame, he lights up, > "He's real quick. He has won several races, reaping cash rewards of up to Rs > 51,000. But he is a bit of a one-man animal and gets temperamental with others. > I take care of him mostly." There is a lemon pierced into the tip of each horn > to ward off the evil eye. > Comment: Ananta Sesa is also like this a one-man animal, correction one-woman animal, only Jalangi (a gurukuli newly iniated by Jaya Pataka Maharaj, Jayanti Sakhi devi) can work him. He will chase others off, he tolerates me, but like Deva makes it obvious what he does is of his own choice. > the urban-looking Avijit (in red jumper), son of Rohtak-based animal breeder > Rajiv Khurana, with a heifer of the Sahiwal breed > > > Dhole is reasonably well off, and can afford a tractor. So, why take the > trouble of keeping Housha? "Ours is the sugarcane belt. After the crop grows > up, we need to get inside the fields for several operations like weeding. > Tractors can't go in. Bullocks can. That's why the Khillar cattle population in > our region has been unaffected by tractors." > .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 6, 2001 Report Share Posted April 6, 2001 Dear Ramanuja Prabhu, PAMHO. AGTSP. Thank you very much for your comments on the article and and info about your herd at Jaipur. We have included your letter in the ISCOWP News. This Minstry for Cow Protection and Agriculture has also sent a reminder to all temple presidents as to the first Cow Report being due in April 30th. We would very much like to hear more about your herd. If you could check that the Cow Report for your center was sent to us, that would be very helpful. It is in e-mail format and not difficult to fulfill. Is not a drought happening in your area? How are you managing? Your servant, Chaydevi ISCOWP Secretary IMCA Secretary - "(Temple) Jaipur (India)" <Jaipur (AT) pamho (DOT) net> "New Talavan" <talavan (AT) fnbop (DOT) com> Cc: "Cow (Protection and related issues)" <Cow (AT) pamho (DOT) net> Thursday, March 29, 2001 3:03 AM India's oxen > Hari Bol, > > One of the breeds not mentioned in that very well done article, was > Rajasthan's Tharparkar, arguably the hardiest of all Indian breeds. > > In February 2000 myself and another devotee here attended the All India > Cattle Fair held here in Jaipur. The big white bull with the black head > featured in the article, a Deoni from Latur in Maharashtra, won first prize > for being the finest bull. > > The best milker from all the indigenous breeds of cows and buffalo's was won > by one of Chandan Farms Tharparkar cows. The competition included Gir, > Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Rati, Nagauri etc. as well as buffalo's. > > For and Indian cow to compete alonside a buffalo is no mean feat. Here in > Jaipur we have a herd of Tharparkars, which were originally purchased from > Chandan Farm in Jaisalmer. > > The Tharparkars are able to withstand both extreme heat as well as cold, > they rarely get sick and are one of the best draught animals available. > > Because of indiscriminate crossbreeding over the years, pure strains of this > animal are hard to come by. Folklore has it that the Tharparkars are the > last remaining remnants of Krishna's Kamadhenu cows. One look at them will > tell you why. > > Anyone interested in more information can contact me at the Jaipur temple. > > Your servant, > Ramanuja das Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 6, 2001 Report Share Posted April 6, 2001 Dear Rohita Prabhu, PAMHO. AGTSP. Thank you very much for your informative comments about the article. We have included them in the latest ISCOWP News. We thank you for your most recent Cow Report in which we received a twenty year history of the New Talavan cows. We are looking forward to your April 30th report. We just recently sent a reminder to all temple presidents along with the cow report from. According to ISKCON Law they are responsible to make sure the report gets done and is handed in timely. Your servant, Chaydevi IMPCA Secretary - "New Talavan" <talavan (AT) fnbop (DOT) com> "Cow (Protection and related issues)" <Cow (AT) pamho (DOT) net> Wednesday, March 28, 2001 8:51 PM Re: India's oxen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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