The Gir cow is a famous Indian-born dairy cattle breed. The gir breed of cattle native tract is Gir hills and forests of Kathiawar. This includes the Gujarat districts of Amreli, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, and Jasdan. The name of the breed comes from the forest of Gir.
Outside India, gir cattle are also very popular. This gir breed of cattle was imported from the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, and Brazil. And successfully they’re being bred there. The breed was also one of North America’s cattle breeds used to grow the Brahman cattle.
Darbar Shri Satyajeet kumar Shivraj khachar Present head of jasdan with wife Maharajkumari Alaukika Raje Gaekwad daughter of HH Maharaja Gaekwad Ranjitsinhrao Gaekwad of Baroda.
Jasdan herd boasts of fourteen national milk yield championship winners and genetic export to Brazil and other South American countries with its 360-year-old legacy of genetic purity and robustness.
Gir Breeder of jasdan along with Onofre Roberio Darbar Shri SATYAJITKUMAR SHIVRAJ KHACHAR, 11th and present Chief of Jasdan since 1989. (Anant Vilas Palace, Gujarat, India), born 1961, educated at Rajkumar College, Rajkot (1980); married 1988, Maharajkumari Alaukika Raje Gaekwad, daughter of HH Maharaja Gaekwad Ranjitsinhrao Gaekwad Sena Khas Khel Shamsher Bahadur Farzand-i-Khas-i-Daulat-i-Inglishia of Baroda, and his wife, HH Maharani Subhangini Devi, and has issue, two sons.
* Yuvraj Saheb Shri Ravirajkumar Satyajitkumar Khachar
* Kumar Shri Shivrajkumar Satyajitkumar Khachar
The story of Krishna Gir Bull – the legendary bull from Gujarat who was imported into Brazil by Celso Garcia Cid of Fazenda 2 C farm , from Bhavnagar 58 years ago, has almost turned into folklore for those associated with the dairy sector there. But a little known fact is that Krishna’s great-grandmother herself was a gift that the Maharaja of Bhavnagar had received from the ‘darbar saheb’ of Jasdan.
My grandfather Ala Khachar who was the darbarsaheb of Jasdan had gifted Mayar in 1930s to His Highness Krishnakumar Sinhji. And it is Mayar who is great grandmother of Krishna,” said Satyajit Khachar, scion of the erstwhile princely state of Jasdan and a known breeder of Gir cows.
“In those days, royalties used to gift each other good breeds of horses and cattle. My grandfather had gifted Mayar to the Maharaja as a token of their relationship,” said Khachar, who himself owns 150 pure breed of Gir cows.
Jasdan’s historic connection with Brazil is still cherished at the South American country where Onofre Ribeiro manages 600 pure Gir cattle at the Estancia Jasdan farm located in Paraopeba locality in Minas Gerais state, 90 km from capital city Belo Horizonte.
We maintain a center for preservation of the race with a historical heritage here,” Ribeiro, whose father Joao Feliciano Ribeiro, started with the Gir cows in the early 1930s, initially as a merchant and later as a breeder, with animals coming from India in the first imports.
“From the very beginning my father tried to select the animals with a tripod race, docility and milk production,” he said.
We currently have the same motto. We preserve generations of these animals, we use technologies like IVF which counts for 70% of the animals and also clone higher animals. We also participate in the evaluations of milk production together with government agencies such as EMBRAPA and the associations of the breed ABCGIL-Brazilian Association of Breeders of Gir Leiteiro and ABCZ Brazilian Association of Breeders of Zebu,” said Ribeiro, who is also an advisory member of the GIR breed.
The Gir cows at his farm in Brazil in the first lactation in 305 days give an average of 4,500 kg of milk. And in the second lactation, they shoot more than 6,500 kg of milk in 305 days.
Almost 80 % of the milk produced in Brazil has the contribution of the Gir Leiteiro be pure or in crosses with European races especially to Holstein. This crossing produces the adapted Girolando animal with high milk yield in the tropics,” he said.
Ribeiro takes pride in the fact that his family selects the Gir for over 80 years and has lived exclusively from the production of milk and from the sale of animals which are used for breeding.
We work with respect and dedication to these animals that we consider sacred, as their origin in India,” he said. Thanks to Gir cows, the Ribeiro family is in continuous touch with Jasdan’s royal scion. In 2011, around 650 embryos of the Gir breed were flown to Brazil to improve the stock of cows there.
“Beginning from 1999, the embryos were developed in a laboratory at The famous Sagwadi Farm by our Godfather Of Zebu Pradip Roal( Sole Authority Of ABCZ in India ) ,Bhavnagar which was funded by cattle breeders of Brazil,” said Khachar.
There were three major cattle importations from India to Brazil in 1850s, 1925 and 1960. But after 1960, laws made import and export of animals difficult. The South American country had taken very good care of the breed but they wanted fresh blood at every third or fourth generations. Because of which the embryos were flown there,” said Khachar, who exported the embryos in partnership with the Brazilian firm.
Description of Gir Cow:
The Gir cattle is an important Indian dairy cattle breed. They are very hardy and well-known for their tolerance to conditions of stress and resistance to various tropical diseases.
Gir bulls are used on all kinds of soil to pull heavy loads. In general, they are very gentle and polite and love to be with people. The Gir cattle are very gregarious and form a very close circle at night with their calves sleeping under their heads. In India, it is a very popular gir breed of cattle.
The average Gir Cow Milk production is 6-10 liters/day. Within India, the cows are also doing very well. They produce an average of 3,500 kg of milk per lactation in Brazil.
Gir cattle’s average lifespan is around 12-15 years. And during their lifetime, a cow develops 10-12 calves.
Physical Characteristics of Gir Cattle:
On average, the weight of Gir Bulls and Gir breed cow is approx 550-650 kg and 400-475 kg respectively. The height of the bull is 1.35m and the Gir breed cow height is 1.30m on average.
The color of their body is red to spotted white. Although, with large red spots, their body color may vary from pure red to yellowish red to white. The forehead of Gir breed cow is like a bony shield, prominent, convex, and broad.
Ears are long, pendulous, and folded like a leaf on the tip with a knot. The horns are bent and turn back. The tail of the Cow is very long.
They have a prominent Hip Bone and high Hump that differs from other Cow breeds. Do you know that the HUMP in GIR Cow has a specific vein called “Surya Ketu Nadi” that is missing in Non-Gir cows and Hybrid cows?
Surya Ketu Nadi (Vein) produces gold salts in its blood when dealing with solar rays. Such salts are in the milk of the cow and the other body fluids of the cow.
Because the milk, butter, and ghee of the Gir cow have a natural golden color. In Ayurveda, Gir cow’s milk, gir cow ghee, Curd, Urine, and Dung are known as ‘Panchgavya products'.
This is also very useful to fight and cure many human and animal diseases. From Surya Ketu Nadi, we can find many important
properties:
MILK: Vitamins, Proteins, Minerals, Amino acids, phosphorus, Glucose, cerebrosides, strontyne, and Carotene with golden abstracts that are very helpful for our body.
DUNG(Panchagvya products): Nitrogen(N7), Potassium, Copper, Molybdenum, Borex, Cobalt Sulphate, Phosphorus, Irons, Manganese, Boron, Sodium. These properties of cow dung(panchgavya products) act as a natural fertilizer and are used as raw manure.
URINE(Gomutra): Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Fluoride, Urea, Phosphorus, Ammonia. Regular consumption of cow gomutra can destroy the Cancer virus. Its gomutra helps to purify the body and keep the mind calm, which makes the body healthy. It is also helpful to prevent diseases.
