Karan Fries is a synthetic cow breed developed by the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal.

IMAGE: The Karan Fries cow breed. Kindly note that this illustration generated using ChatGPT has only been posted for representational purposes.

Karan Fries — the name may sound unfamiliar. But for animal breeders and agriculturists, it could be the Next Big Thing in Indian dairying.

Karan Fries is a synthetic cow breed developed by the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, Haryana, through crossbreeding Holstein Friesian — a globally recognised high-yielding breed — with India’s indigenous Tharparkar zebu cattle, known for their hardiness and resilience.

IMAGE: The Holstein cow. Karan Fries is a related crossbreed developed from Holstein Friesian and Tharparkar zebu cattle. Photograph: Kind courtesy Hayden Soloviev/wikipedia.org/Creative Commons

Karan Fries cows yield an average of 3,550 kilogram of milk per lactation (around 10 months, approximately 11.6 kg/day).

Top performers have produced up to 5,851 kg in 305 days (around 19.1 kg/day), with a peak daily yield of 46.5 kg, reflecting strong genetic potential under Indian management conditions.

India’s indigenous cattle breeds have an average daily yield of 3 to 4 kg, while exotic breeds yield about 8.12 to 9 kg per day.

Indigenous breeds typically produce 1,000 to 2,000 kg of milk per lactation.

Karan Fries, along with another high-yielding synthetic cow breed, Vrindavani, and 16 other livestock and poultry breeds — taking the country’s total number of registered livestock and poultry breeds to 246 — were presented registration certificates by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at an event organised by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources.

India now has 242 indigenous and 4 synthetic registered breeds

IMAGE: The Indian cow breed Tharparkar bull. Photograph: Kind courtesy Pavanaja/wikipedia.org/Creative Commons

Of the 16 newly registered breeds, 14 are indigenous.

These include Medini and Rohilkhandi cattle from Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh; Melghati buffalo from Maharashtra; goat breeds such as Palamu (Jharkhand) and Udaipuri (Uttarakhand); and a mithun breed, Nagami, from Nagaland.

The list also features poultry and waterfowl varieties: Mala chicken (Jharkhand); Kodo duck (Jharkhand); Kudu duck (Odisha); Kuttanad duck (Kerala); Manipuri duck (Manipur); Nagi duck (Assam); Rajdigheli goose (Assam).

One synthetic sheep breed, Avishaan from Rajasthan, was also registered.

With these additions, India now has 242 indigenous and four synthetic registered breeds.

While Karan Fries, developed by NDRI, is a cross between indigenous Tharparkar cows and Holstein Friesian bulls, Vrindavani — developed by the ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh — is a composite of exotic breeds such as Holstein Friesian, Brown Swiss, and Jersey, along with the indigenous Hariana cattle.

‘After several generations of inter se breeding, the population of Karan Fries has now stabilised, combining the productivity of the Holstein Friesian with the resilience of the Tharparkar,’ an NDRI statement said.

IMAGE: The Tharparkar cow, an Indian cow breed. Photograph: Kind courtesy Pavanaja/wikipedia.org/Creative Commons

“Over four decades of dedicated breeding research and scientific innovation by ICAR-NDRI scientists have culminated in the development of a superior dairy germplasm — the Karan Fries breed — characterised by a black-and-white coat, absence of a hump, and excellent adaptability to hot and humid subtropical conditions,” said Dheer Singh, director, ICAR-NDRI.

The milk production potential of Karan Fries is nearly twice that of most indigenous cattle breeds in the country, Singh added.

Vikas Vohra, head of the animal genetics and breeding division at NDRI, said continuous genetic monitoring and scientific selection have helped the Karan Fries population achieve stability and uniformity in production traits.

This means the breed has been genetically stabilised to overcome the F1 (first filial generation) breeding limitation, is adapted to India’s agro-climatic conditions, and can serve as a foundation stock for crossbred cattle improvement across the country.

At present, Karan Fries animals are being reared and placed with farmers across the districts of Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Kaithal, Jind, and Yamuna Nagar in Haryana.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff