Dairy News

Amul Dairy becomes first milk union to brand frozen semen

Sunday, 09/04/2017

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vadodara/amul-dairy-becomes-first-milk-union-to-brand-frozen-semen/articleshow/58087634.cms

VADODARA/ANAND: Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited popularly known as Amul Dairy has become the first milk union in the country to launch its own brand of frozen semen.

According to the dairy, the frozen semen branded as 'Novo Genes' will help safeguard farmers of the country from malpractices adopted by many quacks especially in northern states of the nation.

Since 1974, the milk union has been producing frozen semen doses at its semen station located at Ode village, 19km away from milk city Anand. Semen station, which is among the few in the country to be graded by Central Monitoring Committee constituted by Government of India and equipped with sophisticated technology, accommodates more than 200 pure and cross bred breeds of cattle and buffalo bulls.

"The semen procured from these bulls fulfil needs not only of members of the union but also farmers across the country," said Amul Dairy's managing director Dr K Rathnam, adding that in 2016-17 alone, the dairy had sold two million frozen semen doses at all India level.

"But we decided to go for branding to avoid duplication in the market. Every straw will have the brand name printed on it so that farmers are not cheated," said Rathnam, adding that while the dairy is targeting to sell three million doses in the current year, in the next couple of years, the target is to sell five million doses nationally.

"Our semen station has capacity to produce five million doses per annum. We have already established a bull mother farm to procure best quality disease free bulls for the semen station. Semen of these bulls after stringent testing in their own milk shed area is made available for sale in the other parts of the country," he said.

The dairy will collaborate with government livestock boards, NGOs, other cooperatives and private agencies to ensure that the branded frozen semen reaches farmers in remote places in a faster mode.

"The only way to increase milk availability is to improve productivity of bovines which can come only from good quality bulls that are produced from high yielding mothers. At our semen station, we have mothers giving 25 litres milk a day which eventually can help increase milk yield by at least 40 per cent in the next three to four years' time if quality semen is used by farmers," he said.