Narender Singh with Shahenshah at Agri Leadership Summit in Rohtak. (Express Photo: Sukhbir Siwach)
“Bhai, can I get a photo clicked with your bull?” a youth asks Narender Singh. The 46-year owner of the Murrah breed buffalo, whom he has named Shahenshah (King of Kings), readily obliges.
Narender was flooded with such requests, with his prized bull the centre of attraction at the Haryana government’s third Agri Leadership Summit here late last month. Shahenshah helped this farmer from Didwari village of Panipat district bag the state’s first ever Murrah Ratan Award at the summit.
What is striking about Shahenshah is its sheer size. Narender claims the bull weighs 1,600 kg. Animal husbandry department officials are more conservative; they assess its weight at 1,100-1,200 kg, but that’s still over twice the average 500 kg for a normal Murrah bull, whose height is usually around 5.5 feet.
There are other claims Narender makes that aren’t easy to confirm — “a Russian trader offered me Rs 25 crore for Shahenshah, but I refused” — although no one can bring oneself to challenge him directly. When asked why not sell when the offer is so high, Narender has a ready answer: “I want to keep this animal for breed improvement and enhancing the milk yields of buffaloes in our area”.
Narender has 17 acres, but practically all his income comes from sale of buffalo milk and semen. His reluctance to part with Shahenshah could, perhaps, be because he might well be making more money selling its semen. Narender has around 100 adult female buffaloes, of which 40-odd are currently in milk and the rest pregnant or dry before the next calving. He also has as many calves and young heifers. Besides, there are five bulls. These include the 4½-year-old Shahenshah and a buffalo bull aged 1½ years. The other three are cattle bulls, all pure-breeds: a Holstein Friesian, a Sahiwal and a Hariana.
All these animals are housed on a two-acre dairy farm within Narender’s 17-acre family holding. Another 10 acres is dedicated to cultivation of green fodder, including jowar (sorghum), makka (maize) and jai (oats).
The decision to turn full-time dairy farmer came in 2000, after he had bought two Murrah buffaloes, Rani and Lakshmi, at Rs 1.50 lakh and Rs 1 lakh, respectively.
“Rani was a real Black Beauty. She yielded up to 23 kg milk daily, and also gave birth to a male calf, Golu, which became an instant hit and we started taking him to competitions,” he recounts. Over time, the herd grew, while Golu, whom he sold to a farmer at Baghpat in western UP, also fathered Shahenshah.
Shahenshah’s mother — she, too, was called Rani — reportedly recorded a maximum milk yield of 28.9 kg in one day during 2013. Shahenshah’s own worth is obviously derived from his parentage.
Narender’s dairy has many buffaloes giving between 20 kg and 26 kg of milk daily. The family sells about 1,300 kg, including 200 within the village. Of the remaining, 700 kg and 400 kg respectively are supplied to the nearby towns of Panipat and Samalkha.
Sale of semen is over and above this. “We take our bulls to a private semen bank at Karnal. There, their semen is frozen using liquid nitrogen; this we sell at Rs 300 per dose. The rate for normal semen in government veterinary hospitals is Rs 30, but it is not of our quality,” says Narender.
“We sell 5,000 or so doses per month, which falls to 500 during April-June [the peak breeding season for buffaloes is from September to February]. Our average net monthly income is Rs 6 lakh, half from milk and half from semen,” he says.
The dairy farm is managed by Narender’s wife, Roshni. A matriculate, she is proud to show the specially-built “swimming pool (pond)” and air-coolers for making the animals comfortable during summer. Their son Naveen, 25, looks after daily sales.
S S Dahiya, principal scientist and head of animal nutrition at the ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes in Hisar, reckons that a good buffalo can yield up to 4,000 kg of milk in its second annual lactation cycle. A tenth of this may go towards feeding its calf. The remaining 3,600 kg, at Rs 40/kg, can gross over Rs 1.40 lakh, which, after various expenses of Rs 80,000, would net Rs 60,000. “Farmers can also earn extra from semen. Besides, the animals can be sold for meat purpose, which is not possible with cows or male cattle,” he says.