'Murrah' buffaloes to walk the ramp to showcase high milk yield
Showstopper
Talk about catwalk, and the first thing that comes to mind is glitz, glamour and models sashaying down the ramp. 
Well, in the small town of Jind in Haryana, the euphoria will be much the same, just that sashaying down the ramp will not be models but buffaloes.
That’s right. High-breed and high-priced murrah buffaloes will be moved around a specially-designed ramp to showcase the rarity of the breed and its high milk yield.
The event will be held on February 21. Among the audience will be Union minister Sharad Pawar.
As many as 30 such buffaloes will be showcased, each with a documentary that will tell about the history of the buffalo and its phenomenally high milk yield capability. This buffalo costs upwards of Rs 50,000 each and it gives at least 25 litres of milk per day.
Satbir Sharma, joint director of state animal husbandry department, said the event is being held for the first time in Haryana.
“Haryana is home to murrah buffaloes. We call them black gold here, and 70 per cent of the total buffaloes in the state are of murrah variety,” he said.
Cash awards to farmers
The event will be held at a stadium, and big TV screens will be set up to telecast the ‘buffalo catwalk’. As an incentive to promote murrah buffaloes, the government will give cash awards of Rs 9 crore to at least 11,000 farmers in Haryana.
“Haryana’s zeal to promote these buffaloes is a story of success for farmers in the state,” Sharma said. “These buffaloes are also exported. The average cost of a buffalo has gone up from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh in the last five years,” he added.
Pawar will launch an artificial insemination programme on the second day of the event. Volunteers of a private agency will conduct door-to-door campaigning in 4,000 villages to give artificial insemination shots to cattle.
The murrah buffalo can convert coarse feed into fat-rich milk even under harsh agro-climatic situations. Haryana’s trade in milch animals outside the state has given a great economic fillip to rural breeders of murrah buffalo. A US-based dairy firm had bought these buffaloes at Rs 2.5 lakh each.
