Murrah buffaloes are touted to be milk machines. Now one from Haryana has yielded 33.8 litres of milk in a 24 hours. The previous record was set at 32.66 in 2019.
Naresh Beniwal of Kaithal is the proud owner of Reshma, who set the record of yielding 33.8 litres of milk. Image Courtesy: HindiNews18
Naresh Beniwal must be a very happy man!
A buffalo owned by the resident of the Budha Khera village in Haryana’s Kaithal district has broken a national record. His buffalo named Reshma has set a record by yielding 33.8 litres of milk in one day.
Here’s what we know of the buffalo that made history, past records and a closer look at buffalo milk production in India.
Reshma makes history
Reshma, a Murrah breed of buffalo, by yielding 33.8 litres of milk in 24 hours set a new record as certified by the National Dairy Development Board {NDDB}.
Naresh Beniwal was quoted as saying that when Reshma first gave birth to a calf, she gave 19-20 litres of milk. Following this, she gave a whopping 30 litres of milk. The NDDB has ranked Reshma’s milk of very high quality — the fat content in the milk has been ranked as a 9.31 on 10.
Naresh Beniwal told HindiNews18 that he had bought Reshma for Rs 1.4 lakh and he’s very proud to have Reshma in his stable.
He added that Reshma’s high production of milk — it takes two people to milk her — is owing to her rich diet; the buffalo is fed 12 kg of feed on a daily basis.
Past records
In December 2019, a murrah buffalo, owned by a farmer from Haryana had set the record by yielding 32.66 kg milk in one go.
Buffalo owner Sukhvir Singh of Litani village of Hisar district said he had bought the buffalo, named Saraswati, around three years ago in Kurukshetra at a price of Rs 1.73 lakh. A proud owner, he had at the time that besides being the highest milk-producing buffalo, Saraswati had also won a beauty pageant during a contest held in February 2018.
Incidentally, Saraswati had claimed the title of being the highest milk-producing buffalo from a Pakistan buffalo, which had given 32.50 litres of milk.
Buffalo milk production in India
With 76 per cent, India is the world leader in global buffalo milk production.
In 2018-19, India’s total milk production was over 187 million tons. As per official figures, more than 51 million buffaloes produced 92 million tons, while 74 million cows produced nearly 90 million tons. On average, buffaloes outperform cows in milk yield. The quality of milk is also better.
According to a report in Fair Observer, the cow holds no advantage over the buffalo in terms of pure dairy economics. In fact, contrary to popular myth, cow milk neither has greater nutritive value nor better digestibility than buffalo milk.
When it comes to cholesterol, cow milk has 330 milligrams per 100 grams, while the corresponding figure for buffalo milk is 275 milligrams. There is a case to be made that drinking buffalo milk instead of cow milk might reduce the risk of a heart attack.
Also, having buffaloes is more beneficial than having cows as they are low cost and low maintenance.
The buffalo survives and even thrives on coarse fodder and crop residues. For small farmers, the buffalo is the ideal choice. They struggle to maintain and manage pedigreed cows who need high-cost feed.
Among the buffaloes, the murrah breed earns the honour of being the world’s best dairy type buffalo.
The breed is mostly found in Haryana and Punjab, where it is kept in the districts of Bhiwani, Hisar, Rohtak, Jind, Jhajhar, Fatehabad, Gurgaon and the capital region of Delhi.
So popular is the Murrah breed today that even countries as far as Bulgaria and Italy have imported the buffalo to increase their milk production.
With inputs from agencies
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.