On Repeat Breeding In Dairy Heifers

Because of the lockdown from the beginning of 2020, many educated young people in the age group of 25-35 has been moved to their hometown and villages. This has compelled them to work online from home and thinking to explore the possibility of animal keeping. This includes fish, goats, buffalo, Desi cows and the exotic cows. All of these the exotic cow seems to be more promising because it gives milk every day and it is a good source of income. Because of the green revolution have been irrigated area of western U.P., Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and MP. With the introduction of the high yielding exotic breeds of North American and European origin it is very much possible to produce 100 litres of milk from 10-15 animals. These animals survive very well on the agriculture by-products like wheat straw and paddy straw has meant the production of milk without land. The keeping of the exotic cows like Jersey and Holstein has become a leading business to the property dealer, hotel owners and the educational institutions. With the availability of inputs like disease control, reproduction, nutrition, management, and environmentally controlled housing has meant the keeping of dairy animal as an investment. In the recent time the availability of the frozen sexed semen producing only the female calves has revolutionized the dairy industry. The rate of replacement of herd is has doubled. Mostly the cow and buffalo are purchased from Punjab, Haryana and western UP. The cost of transportation from these area is very high. It is necessary for farmer to produce cows or buffalos along with the production of milk. The biggest constrain in this venture is repeat breeding. The failure of conception after repeated artificial insemination service, this is too much discouraging and this involves factors like quality of semen, trained personals, reproductive technology, nutrition, control of blood parasites, internal parasites and external parasite, and pathological conditions of the uterus etc. In this book from my experience of last 50 years in teaching the cow reproduction and treating the animals for repeat breeding I have sum up the different causes of failure. Hope these suggestions given in this book will help the dairy farmers to know some of the reasons for the failure of conception resulting in repeat breeding. Your suggestions and criticism in improving this book will be appreciated.

The historical background. Specification of objectives. Factors determining genetic responses to selective breeding. Herd foundation. Female selection. Male selection. Implementation of breeding programmes.