A field survey of prevalence of Umblachery bullocks in Cauvery delta zone

Abstract

The present study was targeted to survey the prevalence of Umblachery bullocks among the farmers in Cauvery delta zone of Tamil Nadu. The survey revealed that only 19.77% of surveyees maintained Umblachery bullocks, where as the rest of them had Umblachery cows (80.60%), crossbred cows (18.65%) and non-described cows (0.75%). It was observed that among 268 surveyees, 81.71% were involved in paddy cultivation and the rest were not involved in paddy cultivation but had either Umblachery cows or non-described cows. Among these paddy cultivators, mere 9.33% of the farmers utilized Umblachery bullocks for wet-ploughing and other agricultural works. On the contrary, 89.92% of the paddy crop cultivators employed tractors for land preparation and other agricultural tasks. The respondents also revealed their purposes for having the Umblachery cattle breed included cart-pulling and ploughing (33.57%), dairying (15.67%), sale of male animals for slaughter (13.06%) and cultural sports such as Jallikattu, Rekla race, etc. (13.06%). To conclude, there was a scope for increasing the Umblachery cattle especially male germplasm in its breeding tract.