Ministry of Defense Helping Develop National Cattle Breed “Frieswal” in collaboration with ICAR

A team of Army Officials visited the ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Cattle, Meerut to witness the activities of collaborative project of ICAR-CIRC with the Military Farms located all over India. 

The team was led by Lt. Gen. Gopal R., UYSM, AVSM, SM, QMG, IHQ of MoD (Army). Lt. Gen. Gopal R. applauded the MoD and ICAR’s collaborative efforts in the development of national breed Frieswal. He also lauded ICAR-CIRC’s efforts for disseminating the semen of best ranked bulls to the farmers in different locations in India through the programme like Field Progeny Testing. He assured for availability of the best animals located at different MDFs to ICAR-CIRC so that elite animals may be procured and transferred to Meerut for possible inclusion in elite herds.    

The team  also visited the Semen Freezing Laboratory and the Bull Rearing Unit. 

Highlighting the progress of Frieswal project, Col. D.S. Rathore, In-charge, Military Dairy Farms, Meerut stated about the engagement of all the 37 MDFs in the breed development and improvement programme with the ICAR-CIRC.

Dr. N.V. Patil, Director, ICAR-CIRC apprised the Institute’s role in preparing and implementing the systematic breeding plan towards developing the Frieswal breed of cattle. Dr. Patil stated that this has met the targets set for the production and the other parameters like reproduction performance.

The progress of 32 years collaboration of ICAR with Ministry of Defense for developing the national breed of cattle “Frieswal” was briefed during the interaction session with the scientists of ICAR-CIRC and Officials of Military Dairy Farm.