1. Nepal has a breeding plan to conserve indigenous cattle breeds while improving productivity through selective crossbreeding with exotic breeds like Jersey and Holstein Friesian. 2. The plan involves line breeding of local breeds for conservation and crossbreeding selected local females with purebred exotic bulls. 3. Community-based implementation of the national breeding policy aims to balance genetic improvement with conservation of native genetic resources.

1. Breeding plan
By: Rabina Adhikari
Roll Number:27

2. Breeding Plan
• Planned breeding program of a group of animals or plants, usually
involving at least several individuals and extending over several
generations.
• Collection of crossing, evaluation, and selection (CES) tasks and
decisions which vary across breeding stages and ultimately define a
breeding strategy
• Goal: To position the breeding colony to meet the specific needs of an
experimental program, both short and long-term

3.  Nepal has adverse genetic material with high variation providing a raw
material for genetic progress.
 The indigenous cattle
 Lulu, Achami, Siri, Pahari, Khalifa, terai and Yak
 (though low productivity; disease resistance, hardiness and other
characters suitable for local environment due to continuous selection
pressure imposed by nature itself.)
 Major dominating EXOTIC BREEDS- Jersey and Holestein Friesian. (high
productivity)
 So, breeding plan should incorporate one of them.

4.  Necessity of employing appropriate breeding strategy for upgrading
local breeds with exotic breeds suitable for local production
environment.
However, the indigenous breeds are in danger of extinction due to
 Injudicious use of cross breeding program
 Superiority of cross breed cattle compared to local breeds drawing
attention towards keeping those cross bred animals.
 So, it is prime necessity to preserve the genetic resources.

5. STATEMENT OF PRESENT CONDTION
 In Nepal, local male cattle are used especially for drought purpose
as they are hardy in nature and cows are reared for milk production
and manure. In mid hills most farmers are domesticating local cows
because of which they are forced to get:
 Low milk yield 150-180 lit/ lactation over a period of 180-200 days.
 Short lactation length
 Less profit
 However, local cattle can be adopted easily in midhills. It as they are
gardy in nature, can resist disease etc.
 Proper breeding techniques are limited in research station and
mostly farmers are growing cattle so there should be the necessity
of improvement of local cattle.

6.  Productivity of the cattle in the country is only 519.56 Kg per lactation
(MoAD, 2014)
 Dairy sector has huge potential for growth due to high demand of
milk both inside and outside the country.
 Agricultural Prospective Plan (APP) targeted that share of livestock
sector in AGDP can go up to 45% in the last period of 2015 AD (APP,
1995).
 To achieve this progress increase in milk production and productivity
is one of the important areas (NLBC, 2010).
 Current population of cattle in Nepal is 7.45 million among which only
15.63% are milking cattle (AITC, 2021
 Most of the cattle population in the country contains indigenous breed
of Nepal with poor productivity and only 12% population are
crossbred.

7. Choice of breed and breeding system
All indigenous breeds of cattle for maintaining germplasm and jersey
breed for upgrading
Breeding system
The breeding system will involve two steps:
1. Line breeding of indigenous breeds at their particular production
environment in order to conserve the native germplasm.
2. Cross breeding of selected females of local breed with suitable
other exotic or local breeds as per necessity of the production
environment.

8. For bringing exotic breed into the native gene pool the 3 tier breeding
scheme will be used.
Nucleus: breeding unit in the exporting country ( for 100% jersey
semen)
Multiplier: breeding unit in the country at various eco-zones.
Producer: producing (commercial) unit in the country at particular
eco-zones.

9. Selection of individuals
 Selection differential, heritability, genetic gain, selection index
and other parameters will be determined on each generation mainly
based on milk production and fat percentage.
 This increase milk production with higher fat percentage, shorter
calving interval, and longer lactation yield has positive economic
values.

10.  The animals will be evaluated based on its own production and
pedigree records, milk yield, fat percentage, disease resistance
characters.
 Certain healthy animals, productive (fertile) female animals of local
cattle will be the population for improvement and for male. The jersey
bulls will be chosen.

11.  Mating for selected animals
 Indigenous germplasm will be preserved by line breeding
 For cross breeding ( grading up) all the the female cattle selected will
be inseminated by the semen of pure breed as per necessary and
progenies will be selected on the basis of breed characters.
 For cross breeding with jersey breed repeated back crossing will be
employed to achieve the required blood level i.e. more than 75%

12.  Acchami cattle:
 The genetic improvement strategy for Acchami cattle should be
dedicated in maintain purity by line breeding and then at commercial
level crossing with hill cattle can be practiced.
 For Lulu, Pahadi, Khalia and Terai
 Line breeding will be done at germplasm conservation center
established at high mountain (mustang), hills, mountain and terai
region respectively.
 For commercially improving productivity grading up will be done with
jersey semen use by artificial insemination upto 75% blood level for
lulu, Pahadi and khaila and 87.25% blood level to terai breed.

13.  For yak
 Pure breeding is the predominant practice with yak.
 The aim should be to improve the breed for meat and hair.
 The use of selected breeding bulls is recommended, and newborn
animals maybe assigned a grade on the basis of the grades of their
parents. Nucleus herd and multiplier herd scan be established in
high Himalayan region for genetic improvement program.

14. Methodology
The study focuses on milk production traits. The program utilizes
various methods, including the selection of breeds based on their
performance. For this purpose, pure jersey breed males and local
cattle females were chosen.
Female of local cattle Male of pure jersey

15. Jersey
 Farmers often use artificial insemination to mix high-producing breeds
with local cattle in an effort to boost production.
 Highest milk yield recorded = 29,010 kg (63,905 lbs) of milk in a year.
 Was achieved by a Jersey cow named "Lolita" in 2016.
Siri
 Relatively low amount of milk, averaging around 425.8 kg per lactation
with fat percentage varying from 2.8 to 5.5%
 Critically endangered in Nepal.
 However, it can still be a suitable breed for low-input systems, in hill
areas. .

16. Holstein Friesian:
 Most common exotic breeds of cattle used for crossbreeding.
 Farmers use artificial insemination to mix Holstein Friesian cattle
with local cattle to boost the productivity of local breeds.
 Productivity: between 500 to 2,000 liters per cow per year
Yak:
 Often crossbred with Tibetan cattle bull or Zebu cattle cow in
traditional herd farming systems in high altitude areas of northern
Nepal.

17. Grading up
 Practice of breeding sires of a given breed with nondescript females
and their offspring for generation after generation
 Used to improve the genetic quality of the offspring by gradually
increasing the proportion of the desired breed in the population.
Mating system
 Very important tool and responsible for the success and failure of the
breeding plan.
 Best to best mating among the animals is very important during
breeding for getting the better progeny with desirable traits which the
breeder is going to introduce in that progeny.

18.  Crossbreeding
1.Crossbreeding with Yak: Crossbreeding of yak with cattle, such as
Tibetan cattle bull or Zebu cattle cow, is popular in traditional herd
farming systems in high altitude areas of northern Nepal.
This practice can lead to improved productivity and adaptability of the
offspring.
2.Crossbreeding with Exotic Breeds: Farmers in Nepal use artificial
insemination to crossbreed their local cattle with high-producing breeds
such as Holstein and Jersey. The aim is to boost the productivity of local
breeds. However, the productivity of crossbred cattle in Nepal is still
relatively low, with farmers often only reaching between 500 to 2,000
liters per cow per year.

19. 3.Productivity of Crossbred Cattle: A study conducted in Bardiya
district of Nepal found that exotic crossbred cattle raised in hot and
humid climatic conditions of the Terai region exhibited equally good
performance as purebred cattle. This suggests that crossbreeding can
be a successful strategy for improving productivity in specific
environments.
4.Crossbreeding with Nak: The breeding and sale of nak-cattle
crossbreed calves is also practiced in Nepal. This practice can lead to
improved productivity and performance of the offspring.

21.  Other Breed: Breed having
unknown ancestry and mixed
breed
Jersey Having at least 75% of the blood level of Jersey
Breed.
Holstein
Breed
Having at least 75% of the blood level of Holstein
Breed.
Jersey*
Holstein
Cross of Jersey and Holstein Breed with 40% blood
level of either breed
50% Jersey Having at least 50% of the blood level of Jersey
Breed.
50%
Holstein
Having at least 50% of the blood level of Holstein
Breed.
Fig: Breed categorization on different classes

22. DZO (CROSSBREED BETWEEN YAK AND DOMESTIC COW) FEEDING
IN FIELD NEAR LO-MANTHANG, UPPER MUSTANG, NEPAL

23. SUMMARY/INSIGHTS TO THE BREEDING PLAN OF NEPAL
1. Genetic Improvement Programs:
2. Conservation of Native Breeds:
3. Community-Based Breeding Plan:
4. National Breeding Policy:
 GoN introduced the National Breeding Policy in 2011 to address the
need for effective conservation and genetic development.
 This policy likely provides a framework for the breeding plan of cattle in
the country.

24. SUGGESTIONS:
1.Enhanced Data Collection:
2.Selective Breeding:
3.Capacity Building:
4.Collaboration and Research:
5.Awareness and Incentives: