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Part III :
Cattle and buffalo Breeds
The Government of Maharashtra has identified Deoni, Dangi, Khillar, Gaolao and Red Kandhari
as indigenous breeds of cattle. Deoni name has been derived from Deoni taluka of Latur district in
Maharashtra. Likewise, Red Kandhari originates from Kandhar taluka in Nanded district.
In order to protect and propagate these breeds, the state has introduced three pronged strategy : i)
introduce selected bulls in villages for natural service; ii) supply of frozen semen of proven/true-to-
type indigenous breed for carrying out Artificial Insemination; and iii) involve Breeder’s Association in
conservation of indigenous breeds. It has also introduced system of herd registration, milk competition
etc to identify high-milk yielders of indigenous breed to facilitate buy-back of pedigreedmale-calves for
getting quality breeding bulls.
In case of buffalo, it has developed agro-climatic specific breeding strategy and germplasm for genetic
improvement. Buffaloes of descript breeds like Pandharpuri, Marathwadi, Nagpuri etc are bred only
with semen of bulls of respective breed, whereas non-descript buffaloes are bred with germplam of
identified breeds.