Bandipora: The technique to artificially inseminate local goats with frozen semen from improved and more milk yielding breeds from other states has borne fruit.
The facility has been introduced in Bandipora by the Sheep Husbandry Department which has created a frozen semen bank ‘for small ruminants’ at Kunan village, here. “The technique which was earlier used in bigger animals has been introduced in small ruminants for the first time in the entire UT here in Bandipora district, using frozen semen,” Dr. Showkat Ahamd Ahanger, district sheep husbandry officer told Greater Kashmir.
Though earlier they have been trying methods of fertilization through liquid artificial insemination from local breeds “without much success on milk yield”. The frozen technique involves semen from four improved dairy breeds called Jamnapari, Beetal, Sirrohi, and Barbari, having high productivity with an average milk yield of 4 liters besides high fecundity, producing mostly twins and triplets, Ahanger informed.
“The local goats have been cross-matched with these breeds and three successful births have been reported so far in the district,” he added.
Showkat said though there is a large goat population in Kashmir they are mostly “decrepit in nature” as they are not that fertile and are very low on productivity.
“There is a large population of goats in the district, however, they are not potentially that fertile besides having low milk-producing capability,” Showkat said, adding that the goats are largely domesticated for consuming milk in J&K rather than meat and that the IA method will give a boost to the farmers as milk productivity will increase.
According to the officer, there is hardly half a liter of the average daily production of milk among goats in the UT, and with the introduction of the new breed, milk productivity will increase by 3 to 4 liters, and those farmers having interest are recommended that they “contact us for the procedure.” One such elderly farmer, Munawar Parwana from Gundbal village of the district where the first kid gave birth through the technique, is ‘feeling elated’. “I have been domesticating goats for nearly fifty years, and it’s for the first time I opted for such a technique to artificially inseminate the goat at the center some five months ago,” Parwana said. He said to confirm pregnancy, the “tests were also done and the kid, though male, seems different as compared to earlier births.”