Trends in the Growth of Crossbred Cattle Population in Indian Climatic Conditions

The study focuses on the growth of milk producing animals, specially crossbred cows and buffalos in India. As per the 20th Livestock Census, the total livestock population is 535.78 million in India in the year 2019 and it shows an increase of 4.6 % over Livestock Census of 2012. Cattle population of India is 192.49 million while the population of buffaloes is 109.85 million in the year 2019. About 36 % of the total livestock is contributed by cattle& buffalos. Compared to previous census, the cattle population has increased by 0.83 % while buffalo population has increased by 1.06 % showing an increasing trend of buffalo population. Further, there is a consistent increase of buffalos over the last three livestock census. On the other hand population of the total exotic/crossbred cattle has increased by 26.9 % in 2019 as compared to previous census. Among this, it is striking to note that female crossbred cattle population has increased by 39 % while male crossbred population decreased by 42 % indicating that the adaption of crossbred cows for milk production is on the rise in India. Further, the higher fertility rate of crossbred cows over indigenous cows states that the crossbred cows are well adapted to Indian climatic conditions.