Vol. 9, Issue 4, Part D (2024)

Author(s): K Jagadeesan, AS Selvaramesh and P Vijayakumar

Abstract: The present study was targeted to survey the prevalence of Umblachery bullocks among the farmers in Cauvery delta zone of Tamil Nadu. The survey revealed that only 19.77% of surveyees maintained Umblachery bullocks, where as the rest of them had Umblachery cows (80.60%), crossbred cows (18.65%) and non-described cows (0.75%). It was observed that among 268 surveyees, 81.71% were involved in paddy cultivation and the rest were not involved in paddy cultivation but had either Umblachery cows or non-described cows. Among these paddy cultivators, mere 9.33% of the farmers utilized Umblachery bullocks for wet-ploughing and other agricultural works. On the contrary, 89.92% of the paddy crop cultivators employed tractors for land preparation and other agricultural tasks. The respondents also revealed their purposes for having the Umblachery cattle breed included cart-pulling and ploughing (33.57%), dairying (15.67%), sale of male animals for slaughter (13.06%) and cultural sports such as Jallikattu, Rekla race, etc. (13.06%). To conclude, there was a scope for increasing the Umblachery cattle especially male germplasm in its breeding tract.

DOI: 10.22271/veterinary.2024.v9.i4d.1548