Question

Write a short note on cattle farming.

Answer 1

Hint: The livestock refers to domestic animals which provide us milk, flesh, etc. and includes cow, buffaloes, sheep, goats, elephants, horses.

Complete answer:
Animal husbandry is a branch of agriculture which deals with care and breeding of domestic animals such as cattle, fishes, sheep, and honey bees. Apiculture, Cattle farming, Poultry, Fishery, Pearl culture, Seri culture, lac culture are some of the branches of animal husbandry. Cattle farming includes management of animals for milk and its product for human consumption. Milk is one of the important foods in day to day life and is a rich source of calcium and minerals, hence known as complete food.

Following are the important principle should be followed for cattle farming:
1. Selection of quality, high yielding, and disease resistance breeds.
2. Vaccination of the breeds.
3. Proper maintenance of the hygiene.
4. Adequate healthy food, and adequate facilities for feeding, watering, and lighting should be available.

Cattles like Bos indicus (cow) and Bos bubalis (buffalo) are widely used for transportation purposes, as a source of milk, for agricultural purposes. Buffalo is also used for their meat. Cattle breeds can be classified into three groups (a) Milch breeds – they are high milk yielding cows. e.g.- Gir, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Brown Swiss, Jersey, Holstein-Friesian. (b) Draught breeds- good working bullocks. (c) Dual purpose breeds- they are both good milk producers and for working purposes also. e.g. Deoni, Sahiwal. Sheep are also used for rearing of wool, mutton, and skin. Goats are known as poor man’s cows.

Types of Animal breeding includes: inbreeding, outcrossing, interspecific hybridization, outcrossing, artificial insemination and MOET.

Additional information: National Dairy Research Institute is located in Karnal, Haryana.
Buffalo yields more milk than cows.

Notes: Apiculture is a process of rearing honey bees in artificial hives for commercial production honey and wax.
MOET is Multiple Ovulation Embryo Transfer technology.
Interspecific hybridization is the crossing between male and female of two different species.