New dairy breed introduced in Samchi

The Department of Livestock (DoL) officially released a dairy breed called ‘Karan Fries’ at the National Jersey Breeding Centre (NJBC) in Samtse on a trial basis to provide more options of dairy breeds for the livestock farmers in the country.

As envisioned by Yeshey Dorji, the Agriculture Minister to look into providing more choices of dairy breeds for Bhutanese farmers to help boost milk production in a sustainable manner, DoL imported 30 numbers of Karan Fries from Haryana, India in June 2014. The cattle are stationed at NJBC to evaluate its adaptability, production and reproduction performances under Bhutanese conditions.

Karan Fries was developed in India at the National Dairy Research Institute at Karnal by crossing Holstein Friesian with Tharparkar, an Indian milch breed. Holstein-Friesian cattle are best known for its milk production and are the most established dairy breed worldwide. Tharparkar cows are average milk yielders but are highly valued for their ability to withstand variable environmental conditions, higher resistance to diseases and capacity to thrive on low feed resources. The cross between these two breed exploited the desirable traits from both the breeds and was named as Karan Fries which is very popular amongst dairy farmers of North India.