Ongole Cattle Breed- Pride of India- Wealth of Brazil
Ongole
Cattle Breed- Pride of India- Wealth of Brazil
Introduction:
"ONGOLE"
breed cattle also known as " NELORE" in Brazil & few other
countries, is native to Andhra Pradesh, more specific to parts of Prakasam,
Nellore, Guntur and Kurnool districts. Original name is only Ongole, when the breed
reached Brazil in 1868, the ongole thaluk was part of Nellore district under
Madras presidency and Brazilians named the breed as "NELORE". In the
breeding tract, it's a practice to leave the best male calf to God and name it
as BRAHMAN and use for natural breeding.
Subsequently Nelore breed was exported to USA & from there to
Australia and few countries and became popular there with the name "
BRAHMAN" . You may be surprised to know that this breed originated from
AP, India is ruling the beef economy of the world with over 65% market share. It
is the first Indian breed to gain worldwide recognition.
Breeding
tract:
As documented,
the history of Ongole breed is very old and it was Aryans who brought this
breed to India and moved from north to south and found the lands close to Bay
of Bengal with hot humid climate more suitable to rear this cattle breed.
The best ongole
breed is found between Gundlakamma & Alluru streams in Ongole-Kandukur areas, Musi river tracts and also in Nandyal,
Vinukonda & Narasaraopet areas. The
bull exported to Brazil from Karavadi village in Prakasam dist became so
popular and the semen dose sold price is still a world record.
Features
of Ongole breed:
Ongole is a majestic
and tall breed, walk slowly with grace, keeping the head straight. They are
large in size with long bodies, short neck and long & muscular limbs. Other
distinct features include broad forehead, elliptical shape eyes with black eye
lashes and black skin rings around eyes, slightly drooping, alert and long ears, short & stumpy horns
growing backward, well developed & erect hump, mostly white in colour with
males having grey patches.
They are docile
and mostly own by big farmers and rearing them is considered as status symbol.
Bulls are very powerful and usually used for ploughing and carting other than
bull shows. Cows are fair milk yielders. These animals are resistant to various
insect born diseases including mad cow and foot & mouth diseases, making
them popular worldwide. This breed is known for its toughness & rapid
growth rate. Ongole is heavy breed and the well matured bull weigh about 500
Kgs, with 1.5 mts height & 1.6 mts length and girth over 2 mts.
Breed
selection:
In India the
best of the Ongole breed is selected based on number of hair rings, shape of
hump, ears, eyes etc, where are the Brazilians follow different logic.
I happened to
travel with a Brazilian in breeding tract for about 10 days in the year 2003
and have firsthand knowledge of the breed selection. The best animal as per
Brazilian standards is one having 2/3rd of total height ( top of hump to bottom
of the trunk ) & 1/3rd the legs portion and length of the animal slightly higher
than the height. The logic behind it is
that such shape animal will have huge trunk and best ability to convert feed
into meat with better efficiency.
Ongole/Nelore
Journey to Brazil:
The British
rulers identified the potential of ongole breed and in 1858 Nellore district
collector promoted Ongole cattle shows & competitions to encourage the
breeders. These really acted as catalyst and farmers had shown lot of interest
in breed improvement through selection
of the best breeding bulls through stringent selection process (Brahman bulls)
and better management practices. To
sustain the process , British introduced a system of leave common grazing lands
in each village. The laurels of prize winning cattle, brought great pride to
their breeders as well as the respective villagers, boosted the quality of
ongole breed and of the sires and dams used in these villages. It clearly shows
the business acumen of British and how they exploited our natural resources.
The
first consignment of two ongole cattle reached Salvador (Bahia), coastal city
of Brazil in 1868 through a ship on its way to England. After hearing about the breed potential, a cattle
breeder from Rio De Janerio imported few
more Ongole cattle from Germany (It is confirming the British trade interest in Ongole breed). The breed gradually expanded
and found important place in Brazil economy, initially in Rio De Janerio &
Bahia and later extended all over.
From
India,20 animals in 1960 & another consignment of 84 live animals in 1962 (last official sale
as on date) were imported to Brazil. These animals contributed for
establishment of important and valuable breeding lines Karavadi, Godavari,
Tajmahal etc (Names given to bulls by Brazilians). The Indian breeds Ongole,
Gir, Tarparkar, Deoni played vital role in expanding strong cattle wealth of
Brazil from 56 million in 1965 to over 220 million in 2015 , out of which over
165 million are Nelore pure or Nelore hybrids.
The
creation of Nelore herd book in 1875 and definition of breed standards in 1938
by Brazilian Government with proper documentation shows the importance of this
breed in brazil economy.
Nelore journey from Brazil to Globe:
Over the years, Brazil established and consolidated its position as
major cattle breeder with main focus on Nelore breed and became leading
exporter of Nelore cattle & beef to many countries. The leading importers
of Nelore breed cattle include USA, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, Central
America and various other countries. In
all these countries, Nelore/Brahman had shown remarkable performance through
purebred selection within the breed or through crosses mostly through European
breeds.
Brazil
continue to have a hold on these markets and making good business through
export of semen, embryos. The semen,
embryos of Indian bloodline commands premium over Brazilian Nelore breed
bloodlines, opened up opportunities in smuggling of Ongole semen & embryos as
the official exports are banned.
"
While Brazil proved how few hundred cattle
can be multiplied into few million quality Nelore Pure & Hybrids,
India the country of origin, lost
direction and pure breed is fast depleting with present strength of just half a
million pure Ongole breed "
Evolution
of ongole breed in India:
The bull
sculptures (Nandi) in historic Lord Siva temples with short horns & erect
hump is exact replica of Ongole bulls, clearly established that the breed is historic.
Another theory is that this breed is phylogenetically related to Tarparkar
breed of Punjab & Sind areas , where the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC)
was there between 8000 to 2000 years BC. Going with the theory of Dravidians
with IVC, proves that Ongole breed is very ancient breed.
Journey
of Ongole Breed in AP, India
When the
breeding tract was completely rain fed, farmers along with food crops like
Sorghum, legumes, millets, took up Ongole breed rearing as an important
economic activity and used to generate income through sale of male calves for
draught purpose and ghee.
Then came rain
fed commercial crops Chillies & tobacco, these had started showing larger impact on cattle rearing. Slowly the large
pastures/grazing lands started planting with these two commercial crops,
resulting in huge pressure on ongole herds. unfortunately these two crops residues
are not suitable for feeding. The
pressure on land coupled with demand for milk in urban areas, the best animals
started moving to city dairies, losing the opportunity of multiplication in
breeding tract.
During the period 1952-58, GOAP understood the need for
breed improvement, best quality breeding bulls and Artificial Insemination (AI)
with pure Ongole breed semen were introduced. 1963-64 is the period India got
aid program from European countries resulting in Purebred Ongoles were
inseminated with HF semen and F1s are proved to be good milk yielders.
Unfortunately the pure ongole herds selected over 50 year period for better
milk yield, reduced inter calving period & early maturity were also became
victims of craze for foreign bloodlines. This indiscriminate AI program coupled
with land ceiling act & distribution of common grazing lands to weaker
sections, resulted in fast depletion of ongole breed from the breeding tract. This
was the period Brazil was strengthening the breed and many best quality ongole
sires from breeding areas were shipped out and also the best quality ongole
semen was smuggled to Brazil , instead of using in India. Major damage was done
to the breed & India lost the potential good milk yielders.
Almost after 15
to 20 years period, Government realized the damage done and brought changes in
breeding policy thereby pure ongole can be inseminated with pure ongole semen
only. Only ongole type animals shall be inseminated with HF semen. During this period Ongole cattle breeders associations, Ongole Germplasem scheme, exclusive ongole breed farms, NGO
interventions became focus areas. As of now they met with little success due to
lack of scientific approach to the problems,
lack of availability of good quality semen/Embryos and red tapism.
This leaves us
with the only option of depending on Brazil to get back the germplasem we lost to
revive back our breed. Similarly Brazil also need to import fresh bloodlines to
address their inbreeding issues & genetic improvements. These issues will be addressed in detail
subsequently.
Present
scenario of Ongole Breed in India
Large herds of
Ongole breed in breeding tracts/other
places is almost non existing and not being encouraged by the existing system.
With domination of commercial crops in the original breeding tract, the breed
shifted to new areas in dry tracts of
Kurnool. Mahaboobnagar, upper Krishna, Nalgonda Dists. Many individual farmers
in both Telugu states having passion for the breed still maintain the cows &
bulls animals as they feel it as good
omen, other than status symbol in villages. Mainly big farmers maintain this
breed as it is not commercially viable for others in present state of
affairs.
Field
Realities - Concerns:
Field visits,
interactions with experts and animal lovers and action research, gave insight
into the activities related to breed improvement and actual situation in the
field.
Animal Husbandry
(AH) Dept , GOAP under the umbrella organization AP Livestock Development
Agency (APLDA) exclusively promoted for breed improvement program is running
two pure ongole breed farms at Chintaladevi (Nellore) & Chadalavada (Prakasam). Similarly AP
Agricultural University is having Ongole breed farm at Lam, Guntur. The core
objective of these farms is to identify better milk yielding cows & best
quality bulls through field visits, procure and rear them in the farm in
controlled conditions, supply good bulls to semen collection centres ,
inseminate the better milk yielders with pure ongole semen of good quality
bulls etc. Thus contributing to overall breed improvement, thereby farmers will
generate interest in the breed.
What is
happening in the field is totally different and not in the interest of the
breed development. It is noticed that there is no individual monitoring of the animals. The
farms are not maintained properly and are in very shabby condition. Looks like
the manpower monitoring is not there and the commitment towards the cause is
totally lacking. As it was gathered milking of the animals is not done properly
and milking is not regular, hence no scientific progeny testing. Mass grazing is under practise and it is
affecting the quality breeding. It is reliably leant that the best of the
animals are identified and being moved out if the farms through corrupt
practises. So far no significant contribution from these farms is recorded or
being felt in the breeding area.
The Central Herd
Registration Scheme ( CHRS) at Ongole is functioning with an objective to
identify, locate, produce and preserve ongole breed germplasem and milk
recording as first step for improvement of milk production. The records are showing
that the targets are achieved, but the
reality is very pathetic. It was informed that they seldom visit the field and
most of the records are filled with secondary data. So far this program impact
is not felt as it did not produce/identify significant quality animals.
JK Trust Gram
Vikas Yojana-JKTGVY (Raymond Group)
during 2002-03 procured about 100 Ongole cows and bulls with the technical
support of Brazil entrepreneurs , shifted them to Chhattisgarh. They lobbied
with GOI to get permission to export/import semen and embryos, but met with no
success. Thinking that JKTGVY is going to preserve the breed, many farmers
particularly in Vijayawada area, Gosalas offered cows free of cost. In the interest of breed JKTGVY has to give
clarity to public on the status of ongole cattle shifted from AP. Ankush another
NGO having interest in breed conservation and development lobbied with Brazil
& Indian Governments and got permission in 2014 to import quality semen
& Brazil for breed improvement, but it did not happened till date.
IT
IS CLEAR, UNLESS UNTIL GOVERNMENT THINK IN PPP MODE AND MOVE FORWARD
SIGNIFICANT CHANGES WILL NOT COME.
Nelore breed in Brazil
The present population of over 160 million Nelore cattle
in Brazil, with very strong established market linkages with almost all beef
eating countries across the globe, this breed is darling
of Brazilians and playing vital role in GDP contribution.
With the germplasm base of about 200
Nelore cattle imported from origin of breed AP, India
, Brazil did a commendable work by investing in advanced technologies in
animal biotechnology , DNA Mapping, selective breeding, embryo transfer, sexing of semen, embryos, high
security labs etc. With the techno commercial support from federal government,
the entrepreneurs developed confidence and scaled up the commercial production
and reached such a position which no country can reach in near future. The breeding in
Brazil involve very stringent selection process and every registered Nelore
sire is identified through traits such as weight at different stages, scrotal
circumference and progeny testing by using mathematical models through supercomputers.
Nelore breed stepping
stones in Brazil:
The long journey started with two Nelore cattle in 1868
never looked back and going very strong day by day. Brazilians tested
Nelore & few other breeds and picked
it due to its survival traits in hard conditions. As the selection is directed
for beef production, Nelore breed proved as
impressive biotype and once the ethnic purity is consolidated , moved to next
stage of body size, muscular development and skeletal soundness.
It was real challenge in those days to multiply the
genetics to larger population. Since 1960 Artificial insemination (AI) is being
used in large scale and even today AI is the largest breed improvement program. It was given to
understand that the famous bull KARAVADI semen was so popular and expensive and
it produced many off springs. Embryo transfer, In Vitro Fertilization, sexing
of embryos, sexing of semen are being practiced at present for breed improvement.
Field realities:
Brazil is badly in need of Ongole bloodline from breeding tract to address the inbreeding and
other major quality issues of Nelore breed. As the cattle exports are banned from India from 1962,
the only route left is smuggling.
Often Brazilians travel into breeding tract along with local agents,
identify the suitable cattle, sometimes they get photos from
field, shortlist the animals and then source
them. These selected animals mostly reach Jamnagar and few other
parts in Gujarat. From there few live animals cross border into
Pakistan soils en root Brazil. Other route is frozen semen & embryos
reaching Brazil through air lifting. This is in practice for generations and
Government could do little to break this nexus and save our
valuable germ plasma. Unfortunately we never looked at commercial exploitation
of the opportunity to get a decent share of wealth creation through our native breed through official exports and imports.
Nelore calves birth weight is over 28 Kgs and
the cows are to be very strong to bear the pregnancy. In Brazil the best selected
Nelore cows are used for breeding, they are inseminated with best progeny semen of pure
Nelore sire. The embryos are flushed ( average 10 embryos/each cow) are
transplanted into foster mothers , usually Holstein Frisians (HF), as they are hefty and good milk
yielders. The logic behind selection of HF as foster mother is that once
Nelore calves are born, they will have the opportunity to suckle more milk from
foster mother. The initial availability of ample milk from udder, will develop
strong bone structure, scrotum, thereby it will develop the features best
suitable to convert feed into meat and makes commercial sense for the breeders.
To be concluded......
B G Reddy - 9866889246
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