Small but Beautiful Dwarf Cattle Breeds: Kasaragod

Dr. A. Samad

The breed gets its name from the area where it is reared predominantly. Kasaragod is the northernmost district of Kerala bestowed with vast coastal area in the west, plains in the South and hills in North. The local breed Kasaragod are of the dwarf type, with a uniform coat black colour and varied shades of red. Over centuries of breeding and rearing these animals are now well adapted to the hot and humid climate of the region and like other Zebu breeds are endowed with heat tolerance, disease and tick resistance.
The calves weigh only 10.5 Kg at birth. Males attain a weight of 86.8 Kg at one year and 194.3 Kg at adult stage. Females attain a weight of 61.1 Kg at one year and 147.7 Kg at adult stage. The bulls are on an average 107.3 cm tall while the cows have a height of 95.83 cm. Kasargod male calves gain about 7 – 8 times their birth weight at one year of age and this kind of growth rate is observed to be the highest ever reported for any Indian cattle when fed on traditional low plain nutrition feed. This points out the potential of this local cattle to emerge as a small breed, a finding that can be advantageously utilised by the livestock sector of Kerala.

Conservation Efforts: Kasargod Dwarf Conservation Society was established in 2010 with objective of improving Kasargod dwarf breed. Currently more than 200 breeders and organic farmers are associated with this initiative. The Society maintains a conservation farm at Nagacheri farm near Neeleswaram.

Recently the breed was in news as the Chief Minister of Punjab overwhelmed by its good value decided to acquire six Kasargod cows for his farm in exchange of Sahiwal cows donated to the Society farm.