The Gir is a famous milk cattle breed of India. The native tract of the breed is Gir hills and forests of Kathiawar including Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Rajkot and Amreli districts of Gujarat. This breed is also known as Bhodali, Desan, Gujarati, Kathiawari, Sorthi and Surti in different parts of the breeding tract. The Gir animals are famous for their tolerance to stress conditions and resistance to various tropical diseases. Bullocks of this breed are used to drag heavy loads on all kinds of soil. Brazil, Mexico, USA and Venezuela have imported these animals where they are being bred successfully. These animals contribute significantly to the total milk production of Gujarat State. This paper presents information on breed characteristics, demographic distribution, morphological characteristics, management practices and reproduction and production parameters of Gir cattle.
Physical Characteristics:
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The coat colour of Gir animals varies from shades of red and white to almost black and white or entire red. Skin colour is dominantly black but in a few animals it is brown. Forehead is prominent, convex and broad like a bony shield. This overhangs eyes in such a way that they appear to be partially closed and the animal shows sloppy appearance. Ears are long and pendulous and folded like a leaf with a notch at the tip. Horns are curved turning back at the tip. They orient downwards and backwards from the base and incline a little upwards and forwards, thereafter. Gir animals have moderately developed dewlap: males have a large and pendulous sheath. The tail is long and whip like; hooves are black and medium-sized; hair is short and glossy; skin is loose and pliable; hipbones are prominent; the body is well proportioned; the udder in cows is well developed and round and teat tips are round.
Morphometric Characteristics:
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Body weights of Gir cattle at different ages are shown in Table 1. Males were heavier than the females at all ages from birth to 12 months of age. Body weight at one year of age was 138 kg in males and 136 kg in females. Kaushik et al. (1980), however, reported lower body weight at birth in Gir cattle. Tripathi et al. (1978), based on 326 Gir cows (Figures 6 and 7), reported average adult body weight as 313.05 kg, average height at withers as 120.4 cm, average body length as 125.14 cm and average heart girth as 160.53 cm. In a study on 72 Gir cows, Qureshi et al. (1980) observed mean udder length, udder width and udder depth as 53.80±0.40, 50.11±0.40 and 13.61±0.39 cm, respectively. In a herd of 240 cows, Tripathi et al. (1982) reported frequency of bowl shaped, rounded and goat like udders as 59.6, 39.5 and 0.90 percent, respectively. The frequency of cylindrical, funnel shaped and bottle shaped teats was 31.5, 15.4 and 3.1 percent for fore teats and 27.5, 21.2 and 1.4 percent for rear teats, respectively. Teat length, diameter and placement averaged 7.28, 2.88 and 3.11 cm, respectively. The distances between front teats and between rear teats averaged 5.57±0.22 and 2.09±0.12 cm, respectively.
Reproductive Performance:
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Reproductive performance of Gir heifers and cows is presented in Table 2. Heifers received a lesser number of artificial inseminations for successful conception than cows. Service period and calving interval presented in the table are lower than those reported by Ulmek and Patel (1995). Their values were 174.5 days for service period and 461.5 days for calving interval. Singh et al. (1981) observed age at first calving in Gir cows as 52.49 months. Age at first oestrus, gestation length, age at calving, service period, dry period and calving interval in 57 Gir heifers averaged 1 096, 287, 1 367, 317, 271 and 603 days, respectively (Malik and Ghei, 1977).
Production Performance:
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Production performance in Gir cows is presented in Table 3. Two cows (Lalita and Laxmi) produced more than 2 800 litre of milk in a lactation of 300 days. Nanavati and Qureshi (1996) observed 10±0.10 kg average peak yield and 47±0.83 days to attain the peak in 211 Gir cows. Ulmek and Patel (1993a) reported average lactation and 300 days milk yield in 378 Gir cows as 1 775 and 1 449 kg, respectively. They also observed that milk yield was significantly affected by parity and season of calving. Ulmek and Patel (1993b) reported milk yield per day of age at first calving, per day of first calving interval and per day of first lactation length as 1.10±0.04, 4.20±0.14 and 5.54±0.12 kg, respectively. Malik and Ghei (1977) in a study on 57 Gir Hiefers observed 351 days lactation length and 1 191 kg lactation milk yield. Average fat percentage in the milk of Gir cows ranged between 4.69±0.04 and 4.97±0.02.
